By a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Ln

Mythe of the Body : Performlng Identlty ln Genet

Sheenagh Pletrobruno

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research ln partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Mastera of Arta

Program of Comparative Literature McGIII University Montreal

July, 1992

Table of Contents

.~bstract ...... Résumé...... ii Introduction ...... Sexual Identity and Body Performance in Genet...... 8 Race, Ritual and Play in Les Nègres...... 40 Conclusion...... 74 Bibfiography...... 80

.' Abstract

The issue of sexual and raci~1 identity lJ:1folds in a paradoxicat light in

Genet's works. Identi1y as a fixed essence IS both deconstructed and maintained. His enigmatic po rt rayai of identity is addressed trom a theoretical perspective which combines seemingly contradictory positions, namely essentialism and deconstruction. Such a theoretical stand claims that although identity categories are not fixed essences and consequently can be deconstructed, they must be maintained as political categories in order to deal with oppressive systems which construct essentialist-based identities. Through Ger.et's presentation of identity as a body performance, race and sex are dect:lnstructed. At the same time, he iIIustrates how male dominance and racism maintain identities as fixed categories.

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Résumé

Dans les oeuvres de Jean Genet le problème de l'identité raciale et sexuelle est posée de manière paradoxale, en ce sens que l'Identité est perçue comme une catégorie essentielle qu'il faut à la fois déconstruire et maintenir Dans ce mémoire nous analysons la catégorie de l'Identité à partir d'une perspective théorique qui réunit deux positions a priori opposées' celle de l'essentialisme et cellp. de la déconstruction. Une telle perspective théorique permet d'avancer qu", bien que l'identité ne constitue pas une essence et

pUisse en conséquence être déconstruite, il convient de la maintenir comme essence à des fins politiques pour rendre compte des systèmes oppnmants qUi construisent des catégories fixes et essentielles. En montrant que l'Identité est fondée sur des actes corporels, Genet déconstruit l'identité comme cat6yorie fixe. En même temps, il montre comment la dominance mascultnb et le racisme entretiennent une vision essentielle de l'identité sexuelle et raciaie

I Introduction

Emerging from Jean Genet's writing are issues whlch dominate

theoretlcal concerns of race-relations and feminism. It may seem incongruous

to apply a femlnlst framewOi k to those works of Genet which focus on issues of sexuahty since they deal primarily with male homosexuality and not specifically with the concerns of women. Nevertheless, Genet's pr:marily homosexual

world, in which issues of masculinity and femininity em~rge, can be positioned

within a feminist sphere ' ln contrast to Genet's cryptlc; feminist stance, his

concern with racial oppression, in particular white racism toward blacks, is

eVldent ln hls writing and his political actions. Jean Genet's play Les Nègres, written in 1958, deals explicitly with the Issue of the oppression of blacks in a

white domlnated society.2 Furthermore, in 1970, he worked against racism by assisting the Black Panther Party to rail y the support of white American college students for the hberation of Bobby Seale and to stop the genocide of the Black

Panthers and the black people.~ Jean Genet did not only support the concerns of the Black Panther movement but fought agalnst other oppressive forces. He helped the PLO ln Jordan and demonstrated for Aigerian imr..igrants in France.· ln his writlng, Genet spoke for society's marginalized and "inVisible" people -

1 Both Cynthia Runnlng Rowe and Kate Millet have done feminist readings of Genet's work. See Rowe, Cynthia Running, "Jean Genet and Hélène Cixous: Reading Genet through the Feminine" 0 A 1. 1986 Sept.; 47 (3): 927A, ''The Medusa's Tale" Femininf'l Writing and La Genet Romantlc Review 80 3 (1989) . 483-495, Kate Millet, Sexual Polltics (New York: Ballantine, 1970) 470-507.

2 Jean Genet wrote a nJmber of articles which deal wlth racism towards blacks in America dunng the 1970's and the role of the Black Panthers. Se€I"Angela et ses freres," Le Nouvel Observateur 303 (31 Aug 1970) 19-21; trans. Judy Onnger; "Here and Now for Bobby Seale," Ramparts8 12 (June 197): 30-31, May Day Speech description by Allen Ginsberg (San Francisco: City Light Books, 1970) ; "Genet: Whites and the Panthers", Willamette Bridge 3.14 (3 April 1970): 7.

3 Robert Sandarg, "Jean Genet and the Black Panther Party," Journal of Black Studies. 16.3 (1986)' 272 • Ibid, 281 r-

2 , ! criminals, maids, homosexuals and blacks. Genet has been often regarded ~s a spokesperson for oppressed people Where the approach to Genet propose<..

in thls thesis deviates from otner analyses of hls wnting IS the way ln which It attempts to show that Issues of Identlty, performance and oppression are intertwi ned It is through Genet's enigmatic portrayal of Identlty that the problematlcs of raCial and sexual differentiation surfaces. The present analyses keeps allve and works within Genet's paradoxica: portrayalof identity rather than resolving it as a large number of his critics have done. In Jean-Paul Sartre's analysls of Genet, related in Saint Genet: Comédien et Martyr, he resolves the contradictions in Genet's writing. The issue of identity in Genet's works has been largely vlewed from a Sartrian perspective The influence of Sartre IS strongly felt in much of the eritical literature on Genet. Hidden behlnd the various ideologieal frameworks of Genet's major eritics, sueh as the polltlcal approaeh of Philip Thody, the sociologieal analysls of Lucien Goldmann and the mythologieal study of Lewis Cetta, is Sartre's Genet. Furthermore, Joseph MeMahon and Richard Coe's philosophical approach to Genet's writing eehoes Sartrian existentialism.5 Although Sartre's philosophieal understanding of Genet eontams insightful elements, the Sartrian approaeh does impose certain coneeptual

frameworks whieh are not eompletely reflective of Genet's texts. The way ln whieh Sartre addresses the paradox in Genet's writing suppresses its creative potentia/. The eontradictio'l which structures most of Genet's works IS the

5 Philip Thody, Jean Genet: A Study of His Novais and Plays (New York: Stein and Day, 1969), Lucien Goldmann, "The Thaater of Genet: A Sociologieal Study," Genet. A Collection of Crltlcal Essays. ad. Peter Brooks and Joseph Halpem (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prantica-Hall, 1979),31- 46; Lewis Catta, Profane Play. Ritual, and Jean Genet (Univers;(y. AI.: University of Alabama Press, 1979); Richard Coa, The Vision of Jean Genet(NewYorl<: Grove Press. 1968). Joseph McMahon, The Imagination of Jean Genet(New Haven. CT.: Yale UP. 1963)

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following. The characters of both Genet's novels and his plays are imprisoned by Identlties which are imposed upon them by a dominant authority and consequently determine thelr essence At the same time, he reveals that the Imposed identltles and the power of the subjugator are illusionary. Sartre resolves th,s instabllity ln Ge"et's work in a theory whlch i$ based on a partial blographlcal account of Genet's life. According to Sartre, Genet's being, his identlty as a thief, had been Imposed upon him by the good bourgeois society As Genet can only seize hls eXistence through the other, he ie compelled to live in the world of appearance and falseness. According to Sertre, ail of Genet's behaviour, his criminal, nomosexual and artistlc activlties, were motivated towards realizlng the singular goal of capturing the identity that had been cast upon him. For Genet the attainment of true being is an impossibility. Sartre alsc reveals that the identity of the dominant authority, which determines the essence of the subordinate other, is also false. Nevertheless, Sartre reinstates the false identlty by concludlng that a false one is more true than a real one.'. Rather than dealing with the simultaneous presence of the rea! and the false in Genet's works, Sartre eradlcates the parado>:. Although certain concepts that Sartre isolates in Genet's works, namely the iIIusionary power of the dom inant authonty, the equation of appearance and essence, and the link between identity and gesture, cohere with the port rayai of identity that emerges in Genet's writing, Sartre's theory if applied faithfully to Genet's plays and novels does not take into account the paradoxical portrayal of identity.8 As Genet does not resolve the paradoxical portrayal of identity, it is surely possible that he wants the contradictions in his writing to remain intact.

Although Genet's realm IS divided into binary polarities, he nonetheless allows for their interconnection. Sartre's imposition of a rigid framework of binary ( • Saint Genet: Comédien et Martyr (Paris: Gallimard, 1952) J- -

polanties upon Genet's wnting does not take Into account the Interplay of bmary OppoSitions It IS only by approaching the Issue or Identlty wlthin ItS paradox that Genet's portrait of sexual and racial Icentlties can be fully grasped For

Genet, idl~;-:tlty categories are s!ll1ultaneously real and contrived 8y vlrtue of an enigmatic portrayal of Identity, Genet reveals that a glven Identlty whether It be a

particular sex, sexual orientation or racial origln does not correspond to an original. true or natural essence and IS in thls sense contnved Nevertheless, identity categories become e.t the same tlme real through the oppression ansln9 from racism, heterosexism and male dominance

As an indlvldual's race and sex do not refer to an original or natural essence, identity in Genet's wntlng will be presented as a body performance

Although he diseloses that the way in whlch indivlduéAl characters perform thelr gestures is subjected to asymmetnc power structure, he demonstrates the

posslbility of performin~ cne's Identity in a manner that is not completely

determined Identity lies withln the fixed polarities of determlnism and free Will While Genet do es reveal that Identity is imposed, he veers away from a purely

Sartrian perspective by illustrating that Identity is not completely determined by an other. Genet's portrayal of identity IS useful in addressmg a dlfemma concerning the issue of identity within feminist theory and theones deallng wlth

issues of race, in particular black identity. Theorists ln these two areas are often faced with the followlng paradox. If they adopt the post-structuralist claim that

identity categories should be deconstructed, they lose the subJect of thelr theory Many feminists choose to deconstruct the term "woman" to reveal that It does

not refer to a fixed essence based upon imutable truths or blology Simlfarly, t le category of race, which establi-;hes blofoglcal or cultural differences between .------

people, has also been deconstructed bya number of race-relations theorists. The deconstruction of ide,.,tlty constructs becomes problematic for those Indivlduals who are den/ed access to the privileges enjoyed by the middle class, heterost3xual whIte male If they adopt the posî-structuralist stance and deconstruct Identlty construct, for whom can they speak out agamst such oppressIve systems as raClsm, sexlsm and heterosexlsm? Nevertheless, categones of Identity can be simultaneously deconstructed and m::iintained. Identlties can be deconstructed as fixed essences based upon biological or cultural arguments that differentiate sexes, sexual orientations and races, but maintamed as pohtical categories. Although such an approach may appear paradoxlcal, it is merely reflective of the situation which is imposed upon such indlviduals in socie!y as homosexuals, blacks and women. Having their identity Imposed upon them as a flxed essence, they are compelled to maintaln the identity category ln order to fight agalnst the oppression that has arisen from imposed rigid Identlties. Jean Genet's seemingly contradlctory portrayal of identlty mlrrors the paradoxical sItuation which certain individuals in society are forced to live. This paradox is echoed in the way that certain theorists in race

relations and feminism h~ve settled the debate over whether to deconstruct or salvage Identlty categ'Jries. 80th chapters address the Issue of identity from similar perspectives even though each one focuses on dlfferent identity categories. Through a

reading of two of Jean Genet's novels, Querelle de Brest and Notre-Dame Des-Fleurs, and one of hls plays, Les Bonnes, the issue of sexual differentiation and ItS implicatIons are explored ln the tirst chapter. In the second chapt\..:, the question of racial differentiation unfolds in an analysis of Les Nègres. A parallel argument underlies the approach to the questions of race and sex. Although 6

racial and sexual identlties do not eXlst as fixed essences. categones of Identlty

such as woman, man, ~leterosexual. homosexual. white and black become rp11 through their corporeal expressions and the systems of oppressic." that stnve to maintain identity difl'erentiatlcn Chapter one deals wlth the Issue of male dominance and heterosexism while chapter two focuses on racism. Glven the slmilarity in approach to the issue of sex and race, the theoretical concerns ln each chapter consequently overlap. The central argument emerglng from Genet's wntlng can be seen in terms of the debate between an essentialist or constructivist approach to Identlty The way ln whlch Diana Fuss has incorporated both essentlalism and eonstructivlsm ln hei approach to female, homosexual and black Identity 15 reflective of Genet's handling of this issue. In re-thlnking Identlty as a body performance, whieh does not refer to an essentlal, natural or onginal Identity, the wntlngt\ of Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault are applled to Genet's treatment of raee and sex. Within each chapter there are specifie theoretical coneerns. In addressing the sexual identlty and body performance in chapter one, the works of various writers such as Nancy M. Henley, Jill Dolan, Ervlng Goffman and Sue-Ellen Case are cited. In order to sever the corporeal expression of masculinlty and femininity from the discour~~ of the natural, Genet discloses how there exists a similarity between the bodily performance of sexual categories in both heterosexual and honlosexual realms Besides Judith Butler's theoretical framework, the writlngs of Michel Foucault, Ester Newton, Gregg Blackford and Kenneth Piumber are called into play to deal with the interconnection between heterosexuality and homosexuality. ln chapter two, Sartre's theory is brought forth to see where a Sartrian 7

analysis of racial identity could both contribute to and thwart the development of

a more creative approach to identity then critics since Sartre have claimed emerges from Genet's writing. The writings of two critics of Genet, Sylvie

Debevec Henning and Una Chaudhuri, whose analyses break off from the Sartnan model, are applled to the present analysis of racial iaentity. A number of theorists who deal with the issues of racial identity and racism are integrated in the analysis of Genet's play. These theorists include Bell Hooks, Marilyn

Frye, Angela Y. Davis, Joyce A. JOycd, Anthony Appiah, Houston A. Baker, Henry LouIs Gates Jr., Timothy Maliqualim Simone and Frantz Fanon. While the approach to Genet's writing may seem highly theoretical, these theories will not be forced unto Genet's texts but will iIIuminate what appears to be emerging in Genet's writing.

--~------Sexual Identlty and Body Performance ln Genet

"Le cinéma - entre autres jeux - enseigne le naturel, un naturel tout d'artifices et mille fois plus trompeur que le vrai."

- Jean Genet, Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs

Jean Genet's port rayai of masculine and femlnine identity will be addressed in light of selected feminist and pt. .tstructuralist perspectives. It could be argued that su ch a theoretical marriage is problematic. Whlle poststructuralism advocates the death of the fixed subject including the female

subject\ many feminists strive to maintain a concep~ of 'woman' in whose name political representation and activity can be grounded.2 80th Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault are opposed to maintaining a definitive category of woman. For Foucault the construction of fixed identities. such as the female identity. participates in the discourse of power which constructs sUbjects and th en constrains them.3 According to Derrida. the category of woman only exists in relation to man. Any attempt to maintain this category merely reproduc.es the binary framework that oppresses women. Julia Kristeva. a feminist who is influenced by the poststructuralists. proposes a negative feminism which seeks only to undermine present structures that maintain the identity of female. According to Kristeva. any construction of the concept of woman would elicit a

, Linda Alooff. "Cultural Feminism Versus Poststructuralism: The Identlty CrlSis in Feminist Theory," Signs (1988): 418-419. 2 Judith Butler. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of IdentifY(New York: Routledge. 1990) 1. 'Michel Foucault, "Why Study Power: The question of the Subject," Beyond Structu:sllsm and Hermeneutics, ad. Hubert l. Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow. 2nd ad. (Chicago: U. of Chicago P, 1983) 212.

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( re-entry into the discourse of power.· The anti-essentialist stance that has been adopted by certain feminists

from poststructuralism does not jeopardize feminism but can only add to the feminist project by iIIummating how the construction of female and male

subJectivlty IS part of the mechanisms of oppressive power which feminist theory attempts to undermine.5 Although feminism can still prevail in the midst of a deconstructed fernale subject, this theoretical f"ramework cannot lose sight of the

effects which essentialism still has on women's lives. While accepting the claim tliat female identity cannot be derived from a fixed nature, feminism cannot

escape the constraining power which essentialist-based concepts of female identity exercise upon women's freedom. Consequently, feminist thought finds itself at odds with the poststructural claim that the individual is empowered to change his or her identity. In part;cular, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ;s critical of

the pluralist stance Pluralism is based upon what she terms the 'ideology of

free enterprise' which assumes the sovereignty 01 the individual subject. e

Consequently, this aspect of poststructuralism dismisses the feminist claim that women's freedom along with others are constminecF

Jean Genet's literary works iIIuminate the problematic in feminism which , J must incorporate the poststructuralist claim that any fixed definition of female subject is theoretically problematic white proclaiming that the freedom of

women is constrained by fixed concepts of femininity. In Genet's works, the

freedom of both men and women is curtailed by archetypal portrayals of man and woman. The assertion that men as weil as women are oppressed by fixed

4 Julia Kristeva, "Oscillation between Power and Deniai," New French Feminism, ed. Elaine Marks and Isabelle de Courtivron (New York: Schocken, 1981) 137. 5 Alcoff, "Cuhural Feminism Versus Poststructuralism", 421. • Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "The Politics in Interpretation", The Polities of Interpretation, ad. ( WJ. T. Mitchell (Chicago and London: U. of Chicago P., 1983) 352. 7 Tania Modleski, "Feminism and the Power 0' Interpretation: Some Critical Readings", , Femmist StudieslCritical Studiesed. Teresa da Lauretis (Bloomingfield: Indiana UP, 1986) 122. 1 d " i l" 1 1 10 identities does not have a place in a feminist discussion. Nevertheless, feminism should re-address the way it has typically approached masculimty. A great deal of feminist thought "too, ironically privileges man as unproblematic or exempted from determination by gender relations"8 Genet's work deconstructs the fixed essences of 'man' and 'woman' by revealing that what is regarded as natural behaviour for men and women is in reality a social constructIon. At the same time, Genet reveals how stereotypie al conceptIons of masculinity and femininity, which are founded upon naturéll and ideal concepts of sexual identity, repress both women and men.

The social construction of gendered identity in Genet's text emerges through the portrayal of gender as a body performance which does not correspond to a natural or true concept of sexual identity. Altnough the idea of gender as body performance will be addressed mainly in light of Judith Butler's theory, the works of other theorists of body performance such as Erving Goffrnan, Nancy Henley, Jill Dolan and Sande Zeig will be used. Sy questioning the source of the body's performance of a particular sexual identity from a Derridian perspective, fem!ninity and masculinity is further removed from its link to a natural or ideal construct. Genet subverts the relationship between the original and its copy to unveil the non-origlnary nature of what is ~ommonly regarded as original identities. Genet's texts reveaf that gendered identity does not refer to an original construct of femininity and masculinity. Although he iIIustrates that sexual identity do es not refer to a fixed, natural or original nature, he simultaneously discloses that gendered identity is a body performance that is enacted in accordance with the dictates of heterosexuality. Sy reveaiing how homosexuals and heterosexuals alike must conform to socially constructed

• Jane Rax, "Postmodernism and G&"lder Relations in Feminist Theory", Signs 12.4 (1987): 629. ,,

( concepts of 'natural' gendered behaviour, which are postulates of the heterosexual hegemony, Genet evokes the repressive power of heterosexual constructions of sexual identity. A discussion of masculinity and femininity will emerge trom Jean Genet's novels Notre-Dame-Des-Flelirs, Querelle de Brest and the play Les Bonnes. Although the three works address the relationship between masculinity and femininity, one of the sex categories predominates in each text. Les Bonnes iIIuminates the feminine. The play takes place in the confined space of Madame's apartment. When Madame is absent her two maids, the sisters,

Claire and Solange, enaet the murder of Madam~. Solange plays Claire, the Maid, who attempts to murder Madame, whose role is pertormed by Claire. The discussion of femininity in Les Bonnes will stem trom the performance of Madame's temininity, both by the real Madame and the fake one. Although Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs is a novel about male homosexuals, the question of femininity will be addressed through the novel's principle character, the transvestite Divine, who is referred to as a woman in the novaI. Notre-Dame Des-Fleurs relates Divine's relationships with various men, tirst, Mignon and then Gorgui. The presence of Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, who threatens to take Divine's lovers away, triggers a sense of insecurity in Divine. As Divine ages, she feels that her beauty is fading. She experiences a graduai loss of self worth, which leads to her deterioration and eventual death. Whereas femininity is prominent in Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs and Les Bonnes, masculinity prevails in Querelle De Brest. In this novel, Genet relates a myriad of mainly homosexual love eneounters which are both real and fantasized. It could be argued that as Querelle De Brest is a novel about homosexuality, it does not address the issue of heterosexual masculinity. Genet's novel reveals, nonetheless, that there .,.

exists little difference between a homosexual expression of masculinity and a

heterosexual one. ln Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, Querelle De Brest and Les Bonnes, the categories of sex are produced through relations of power which pnvilege the masculine. In Genet's works, male and female do not refer to biolog:cal men or

wornen, but are terms for a set of effects produced in relations of power. Genet's

portrayal of sex categories resembles Michel Foucault's claim that sexuality "IS the set of effects produced in bodies, behaviors and social relations by a certain deployment deriving from a complex political technology."" Underlying the expression of masculinity and femininity is a power structure which privlleges the male over the female. The asymmetric relation of power produces the

masculine and ferninine positions. Although Divine has a male body, she is

female by virtue of her sexual relationships ln which she assumes the submissive position. 10 As Genet says of Divine, "Sans doute, elle-même n'était pas femme (c'est-à-dire femelle à jupe) elle ne tenait à cela que par sa

soumission au male impérieux. "11

The asymmetric relations of power of masculinity and femininity or

dominance and submissiveness have a ubiquitous presence in Genet's writing.

ln Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, he draws an analogy between the submissive status expressed by the lack of pockets in girl's clothing, the lack of a zipper in sailor's pants and the single pocket of the pants worn in the colonies: Le pantalon des colons n'a qu'une poche: voilà encore ce qui les isole du monde. Une seule poche, à gauche. Tout un systeme social est dérangé par ce simple détail dans le costume. Leur pantalon n'a qu'une poche, comme la culotte si

, Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Vol. 1 An Introduction. trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Random, Vintage, 1980) 127.

10 ln Saint Genet: CornIKJi8l1et Martyr, Jean-Paul Sartre provides an in depth analysls of the way Genet's characters are deflned in terms of the other. (Sartre's analysis of Genet will be dealt with in the second chapter of this thesis.) "Jean Genet, Not,e-Dame-Des-F1eurs(Paris: Marc Barbezat-L'Arbalète, 1948) 285. 13

collante du diable n'en a pas, comme ceux des matelots n'ont pas de braguette, et il n'est pas douteux qu'ils n'en soient humiliés, comme si on les eût amputés d'un attribut sexuel mâle - c'est bien de cela qu'il s'agit; les poches QUI jouent un si grand rôle dans l'enfance, sont pour nous un signe de supériorité sur les filles. 12

The submissive status of the female and the dominant status of the male is expressed through exterior codes of dress, gesture and language. Given the scarcity of women in the two novels, femininity is conveyed by the male body The masculine body is manipulated to bring torth the hierarchical structure of

sexual identity. The dominant masculine position is produced by a ngidity of the

body and economy of gesture and language. The submissive 'female' body is

characterized by movement, fluidity, softness and a visible display of gesture. Genet's description of the body display of the 'girl-queens' ard 'boy-queens'13 in Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs reveals the difterence in male and female corporeal

expression. As Genet writes:

Toutes, les tantes-filles et tantes-gars, tapettes, pédales, tantoues, dont je vous parle sont réunies au bas de l'escalier. Elles se blottissent l'une et l'un contre l'autre et bavardent, pépient, les tantes-filles, autour des tantes-gars droits, vertigineux, immobiles et sliencieux comme des branches. 14

ln Querelle de Brest, during the encounter between the passive Armenian and the dominant Jonas, femininity and masculinity are enacted in a

similar fashion as in Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs. In the presence of the passive

Armenian, Jonas' body assumes the stiff and motionless stance of the dominant

male. In contrast to Jonas, the Armenian's body is completely fluid. When he

12 Ibid., 243.

J) The tenns 'girf-queen' and 'boy-queen' are taken tram Bemard Frechtman's translation. See Jean Genet, Our Lady of the Rowers, trans. Bernard Frechtrnan, intro. Jean-Paul Sartre (New ( 'Vbrk: Grove Press, 1963) 59.

14 Genet, Notrs-Dame-Des-Reurs, 20. 14

.. laughs, h's entire body trembles. 'S Although the female dlsplay of the male sexed body is common ln the two novels, it does aris~. though less frequently, that masculinity is emltted by the female body. Lyslane, who is a woman ln

terms of her genital sex, dasires a masculine expression of her body. Even

though Lysiane is passive in relation to her husband, Norbert, who only allows her to have access to the men with whom he has already had Intercourse, she is dominant as a mistress to her prostitutes and, 10r a time, in her love affair with

Robert, a lover with whom Norbert has never slept. '8 Madame Lysiane desires a male expression of her body which would trans10rm her fluid curves into a solld

immobile mass of domination. As Genet says of Lysiane's desire: "Madame

Lysiane regretta cette époque où la femme était roi. Elle regrettait les corsets, les buses, les baleines qui raidissaient le corps, lui donnaient assez de

solennité pour dominer les moeurs, et de férocité. "17

Genet iIIustrates how the display and performance 01 the male-sexed

body is bifurcated to produce either the dominant status of the masculine or the subordinate position of the feminine. Although Genet deals with corporal

expression and its link to power mainly within homosexual interactions, his description of gendered differentiation of posture, gesture and body movement resembles acounts of gender differences in heterosexuals. According to Nancy Henley, heterosexual difference in body display and movement are not

apolitical but are maintainf::i in order to express male dominance and female

subordination. The postures and movements of femininity cannot be used to

obtain power. She cites a number of typlcally female expressions, which elicit

15 Jean Genet, Ouerelle de 8rest(Paris: Gallimard, 1953) 210. "The idea that Madame Lysiane occupies the masculine position ln her relationship with Robert does not CCi"espond with the way madame Lysiane has been typically regarded by critles.

Madame Lysiane ;6 regarded as a maternai figure. See Mary Ann Frese Witt, If Mothers and Stories: Female Presence/Power in Genet", French Forum 14.2 (1989): 176.

17 Genet, Quorelle de Brest, 157 15

( the feminine submissive status, of which some are the tilted head, preening, eyes lowered and looking up and self-protective enclosing leg and arm

movements. '8 Similar to Jean Genet's observation of the differences in female

and male expression, Henley dlscloses how female subordination IS transmitted through demure and impotent body gestures whereas masculine dominance is

enacted throu{~h gestures of empowerment. Using research in differences between the corporal expressions of white and black men, Henley states how the white males' demonstration of masculinity resembles Jean Genet's men.

The dominant stance of the white male is to have "a rigid body, legs spread, arms still at the sides and hands in fists".,e The nonverbal dominance and subordination displayed by homosexuals in Genet's novels thus resembles heterosexual expressions. The homosexual enactments of masculinity and femininlty in Genet's world reproduce patriarchal norms of male dominance. According to Gregg Blackford, the homosexual community "reproduces

characteristics of the dominant culture which are associated with male assertiveness and (faulty at least) female subordination."20 The idea that sexual identity is composed of corporeal acts that can be appropriated and manipulated pervades throughout Genet's writing. In the play-acting game of Les Bonnes, Claire and Solange put on the gestures of a Maid and a Madame. The maids' appropriation of the gestures of a Maid and a

Madame are not only a performance of sexual identity but alsa of class. In Les l Bonnes, Genet iIIustrates how sex and class are interconnected. The demure .i < '1, femininity of the maids is a reflection of social status as Madame's flamboyant

1, " ,. Nancy M. Henley, "The Dance of Life: Posture, Gesture and body Movement", Body Politics: Power, Se" and Nonverbal Communication (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1975) 137, 139, 145. ( "Ibid, 132. 20 See Gregg Blackford, "Male Dominance and the Gay World", The Making of the Modern Homos6xua( ad. Kenneth Plummer (Totowa, New Jersey: Bames and Noble, 1981) 193 .

. ~--~------16 femininity is a mark of her elevated social standing Claire appropriates the upper-class feminlne gestures of Madame. and Solange performs the feminlnity of her sister. Claire. In the maids' game Solange enacts a role whlch should be 'natural' for a maid to perform. namely acting as a maid and Claire assumes the 'unnatural' role of performing the gestures of a wealthy mlstress. Throughout

Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, Divine appropriates gestures of others. and at one point in the novel attempts the gestures of a male As Genet wntes. "Elle chercha des gestes mâles qui sont rarement des gestes de mâle Elle siffla, mit ses mains dans ses poches, et tout ce simulacre fut éxecuté SI malhabilement qu'elle paraissait être en une soirée quatre ou cinq personnages à la fois "21

Divine's failure to successfully perform the gestures of a man. when 'she' is ln fact male in terms of her genital-sex. iIIustrates how supposedly 'normal' gestures can become foreign. As 'she' is not an actual woman. the female gestures she performs are also an appropriation. In Divine's case, both her

'natural' appropriation of masculinity and 'unnatural' performance of femininity are contrived corporeal acts. In Querelle de Brest, the dominant male figures control the intensity of their performance of masculinity dependlng with whom they are. Norbert presents a more virile demeanour in the presence Of Robert,

Querelle's brother, than when he is with his lover. Querelle.

"En face de Robert, Nono reprenait sa véritable virilité qu'il perdait peu avec Querelle. Non qu'il y prit l'âme ou les gestes d'un pédé, mais auprès de Querelle. cessant de considérer un homme qui aime les femmes, il baignait dans l'atmosphère spéCiale que suscite toujours un homme aimant les hommes "22

Norbert allows his performance of masculinity to wane ln the presence of his lover, Querelle, who occupies the submissive status in their sexual relationship,

21 Genet, Notre-Dsms-Des-FI8urs, 125-126. 22 Genet, Querelle de Brest, 110. ------_._-_.__ . __ ._-

17 . t and malntalns his dominant male authority when he is with Robert, who has never jeopardized his dominant male status by engaging in a homosexual relationship. In contrast to Norbert, GiI, who assumes the dominant position in his relatlonship wlth Reger, allows hls performance of masculinity to subside in Roger's absence. Genet comments, "En l'absence de Roger, Gil pouvait

s'abandonner un peu. Il n'avait plus à faire l'homm~.''Zl Through gesture appropriation, Genet has his characters consciously put on both "natural" and artificial gestures. Along with the manipulation of female and male gestures, the exaggerated depiction of male and female identlty which is apparent in the three works reveals to what extent the performance of sexual identity is

contrived. There are numerous instances in the three works where the pe.10rmance of sexual roles has the exaggerated allure of a drag show. The following portrayal of Norbert, the archetypal dominant male figure in Querelle

de Brest, appears to be a pantomime of masculinity:

Débraillé, debout en face des fesses de Querelle, Norbert était seul. D'un doigt tranquille et léger, il libéra sa queue du caleçon court et un instant il la tint, lourde et dresseé, à pleine main. Il vit son image dans la glace en face de lui et il la devina vingt fOIs répétée dans cette pièce. Il était fort. Il était le maitre.24

The extreme portrayal of masculinity that pervades throughout the novel is further revealed when Querelle is overwhelmed by the overpowering maleness

of Norbert and Mario together:

Mario était immobile, presque absent. Il était debout contre le comptoir et derrière lui la glace réfléchissait son dos. Sans dire un mot il se détacha de cet accoudoir qui lui ( , ulbid., 153.

24 Genet, Ouerelle De Brest, 65. ,,

permettait une pose intéressante, et il vint s'addosser au miroir, près du patron: Il parut alors s'appuyer à soI-même En face des deux hommes Querelle éprouva tout à coup un malaise, une sorte d'écœrment comme en connaissent les assassins. Le calme et la beauté de Mario le déconcertaient Ils étaie:1t trop grands Le patron du bordel - Norbert - était trop fort Mano aussi. Les lignes du corps de l'un allaient à l'autre, une confusion ternble mêlait les deux musculatures, les deux visages 25

ln "Comment jouer Les Bonnes", Genet ;r,sists that the performance of Madame

appear exaggerated through elaborate costume and a dehberate acting style ZI

It is possible that Genet intended Les Bonnes to be performed by boys, for he

writes in Notre-Dames-Des-Fleurs that if he were to put on a play ln whlch there were female roles, these roles would be performed by male actors. 21 ln Jean Paul Sartre's analysls of Les Bonnes, he assumes that the three female characters are boys dressed as women. Although there are actual drag queens in Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs and possibly in Les Bonnes, it could te argued that

through the exaggerated performance of his princlple male and female

characters, the characters in the three works are in drag The term 'drag', which is applied to Genet's literature, does not slmply entait a man acting as a woman in a stereotypie fashion, but implies a generalized stereotypie enactment of both sexual identities, performed by either men or women

The tact that Genet's characters appear to be in drag dlsrupts the

discourse of naturalness that has been accrued to the performance of

masculinity and femininity. Drag has the power to rupture the link between an individual's sex and the performance of that sexual Identity According to Ester Newton, when an anatomical-male indivldual puts on the gestures and costume of a woman, female sexual identity become disconnected trom what supposedly

25 Ibid, 31. ze Jean Genet, "Comment Jouer Les Bonnes," Les Bonnes, 7, 11. , 27 Genet, Notre-Dame-Des-Reurs, 253. i 1 ," 19

determines It, that 15 genital sex 31 When female gestures are performed bya

man, the naturalness of femlninlty IS questioned. al Through the transvestism of

Divine, Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs and possibly the "women" ln Les Bonnes, Genet constructs a distance from the actual sex of an individual and the

performance of femlnlnlty. As there do not eXlst any female characters who put

on male gestures, except for Madame Lysiane who desires a masculine expression of her body, the performance of mascullnity is less obvious in Genet's works th an the performance of femininlty. However, by rendering the

performance of mascuhnity 50 contnved and exaggerated, Genet conveys the Idea that the enactment of masculinity is as disconnected from genltal sex as

femlnlnity

Genet's "drag shows" question the claim that masculinity and femininity correspond to stable and unifled identities. According to Judith Butler, drag does not only sever the IInk between anatomical sex and the performance of the correspondlng gender, but dlslodges a third element, gender identlty. As Butler states,

If the anatomy of the performer IS already distinct trom the gender ot the performer, and both of those are distinct trom the

28 Ester Newton, Mother Camp Female/mpersonators ln America (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1972) 103. Both Jill Dolan and Sue-Ellen Case argue that male drag reflects how women's roles are socially constructed See Sue-Ellen Case, Femimsm and Theatre (New York· Methuen, 1988) 85, and Jill Dolan, "Gender Impersonatlon Onstage: Destroying or Maintaimng the Mirror of Gender Roles" Woman and Performance: A Journal of Femimst Theory2.2 (4): 8.

2Y Many feminist theorists would argue that drag and transvestism can not be Incorporated posltively wlthln femimst theory, as they percelve drag and cross-dresslng as degrading to women. See Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, 137. Accordlng to Nancy M. Henley, the exaggerated femlmmty of transvestites perpetuates stereotyplc conceptions of feminimty. See Nancy M Henley. ''The Dance of Life· Posture, Gesture and Body Movement", 141 ln an interview ln whlch Hélène CIXOUS was asked If the "queens" in Genet's hterature, through their parody of femlmmty, enact how femlmnity has been Imposed upon women, CIXOUS states that transvestlsm only reveals a dlsturbance wrthln mascuhnity Cixous claims that liA woman cannot recogmze helself in a queen" See Hélène CIXOUS, "Rethinking Differences An Interview", Homosexualltles and French Ltterature. Cultural ContextslCritlcal Texts. €Id. George Stambolian and Elaine Marks (Ithaca and London Comell UP, 1979) 76-77. Nevertheless, through their appropriation of femaleness, drag Queens and transvestites reveal to both women and men that feminimty, as It IS enacted by women, does not belong to them. (See Butler, Gander Trouble, 137). 20

.. gender of the performance, then the performance suggests a dissonance not only between sex and performance, but sex and gender, and gender and performance. 30

Under the guise of unit y, the heterosexual dlscourse of naturalness conceals the distinctness of those elernents that compose a given sexual identity Although the split between gender and sex has been established to distinguish between anatomical sex and the cultural construction of sexual

identity, Judith Butler claims that the gender/sex distinction reproduces the

rhetoric of naturalness that links anatomlcal sex wlth ItS cultural construction As gender IS regarded as a cultural construction, an indlvldual must assume a gender As gender is constructed, it is possible for a male or female sexed body

to develop the gender of the opposite sex. Nevertheiess, Judith Butler argues

that the concept of gender presumes that the ferrl~!~ body will assume a female

gender and vice-versa. Consequently, there exists withln the concept of gender

the discourse of mimetic identity which assumes a link between gender and anatomy.31 The concept of gender partakes in the discourse of naturalness which posits a 11t1k oetween the anatomical sex of the body and the

performance of that sex. Even though Genet's manipulation of sexual identities illustrates thelr

social construction, the inescapable presence of the discourse of naturalness IS

present throughout his works. In Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, Genet ironically claims that the masculine trait of speaking slang is linked to the male body,

when in fact differences in the use of language ln males and females are

sociallyenforced.

Les tantes, là-haut avaient leur langage à part. L'argot servait aux hommes. C'était la langue mâle. Ainsi que chez les .. Caraïbes la langue des hommes, il devenait un attribut sexuel

30 Butler, Gsnder Trouble, 137.

31 Ibid, 137. 21

( secondaire ... Tout le monde pouvait le comprendre, mais seuls le pouvaient parler les hommes qui, à leur naissance, ont reçu en don les gestes, le port des hanches, les jambes et les bras, les yeux, la poitrine, avec lesquels on peut le parler.:Jl

Although Genet is addressing differences between 'Queens' and 'men' in the homosexual community, parallel differenees have been isolated between heterosexual men and women. Sociological studies on language and sexual difference have shown that there is a tendency for heterosexual men to speak in a manner that is less polite and formai than women.:D ln both Genet's homosexual community and heterosexual relations between the sexes, differences in language express the asymetic relation of male dominance. According to Nancy Henley and Barrie Thorne, the fact that men speak more informally than women suggests that they enjoy a certain freedom as a result of their dominant position in society.34 Behind the discourse which determines the criteria for natural female and male behaviour is a power structure. According to Michel Foucault, forms of sexuality which did not conform to the 'economy of reproduction' were cast out

and eonsidered perverse and unnatural forms of sexual expression. 35 Consequently, sexuality has been divided into the binary oppositions of masculînity anr. femininity. The division of sexuality into two discrete and unified categories conceals the power structure of the 'economy of reproduction'. Foucault states that " .. the notion of sex made it possible to group together, in an artificial unit y, anatomieal elements, biologieal funetions, conducts, sensations and pleasure and it enables one to make use of this

32 Genet, Notre-Dame-Des-Reurs, 64-65. " Barrie Thome and Nancy Henley, "Difference and Dominance: An Overview of Language,

Gander and Society, ft Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance, ad. Barrie Thome and Nancy Henley (Rowley: Newbury, 1975) 17.

34 Ibid., 17. 3. Michel Foucault, The Hislory 01 Sexuallty: Volume 1: An Introduclion, (trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Random House, 1980) 36-37. Il

1 fictitious unity as a causal principle .. "'36 Adapting Michel Foucault's theory, Judith Butler claims that the performance of masculinity and feminimty, which is considered natural, conforms to the dictates of heterosexual hegemony or compulsory heterosexuality, a term Butler employs that was first coined by Adrienne Rich. Under the guise of naturalness, the power structure that determines the norms of sexual identity is concealed. 31 Judith Butler writes " ... that one way in which this system of compulsory heterosexuality is reproduced and concealed is through the cultivation of bodies into discrete sexes with 'natural' appearances and 'natural' heterosexual dispositions."3e By producing 'natural' heterosexual identity categories in a homosexual community, Genet both discloses the system of compulsory heterosexuality, which produces sexed identities, and the discourse of naturalness that heterosexuality relies upon to dictate identity norms. ln reality, actual individuals can never completely embody masculinity and femininity, as these identities are social constructs. 3U ln the three works, Jean Genet reveals how the absolute attainment of masculimty or femininity is an impossible goal. The desire to l'Je an absolute male or female is linked to the wish for sovereignty, an impulse which haunts many of Genet's characters. The impossible embodiment of sexual identitles emerges through the gap between an individual's actual performance of sex categories and the image of sexuality

311 Ibid., 154.

37 Erving Goffman's discussion of the social production of natural, discrete sexod behaviour bears resemblance to Judith Butler's and Michel Foucault's argument. Through an analysis of how advertisements reproduce relations of domination and submission through physieal display such as posture and gaze, Erving Goffman reveals that the performance o, sax is not natural. Goffman claims that "Although these displays are part of expressive behaviour they tend to be conveyed and received as if they were natural." He argues that as gestures of masculinrty and femininity have become ritualized to such an extent, they can be "'ted out of context and used in advertising to enaet relations between the sexes. Seo Erving Goffman, Gender Advertisements (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1979) 3. Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory, Theatre Journal 20.3 (1988): 524.

311 Butler, Gender Trouble, 122. 23

which the performance attempts to imitate. By appropriating Madame's gestures, language and clothing, Claire in Les Bonnes attempts to incarnate Madame's femininity. In the play-acting game of Les Bonnes which the maids entitle the 'ceremony', Claire and Solange construct Madame into a sovereign figure. The maid's glorification of Madame emerges in the ceremony in the dialogues between Solange, the fake Claire, and Claire, the fake Madame. In the following diatribe full of both vituperation and worship for Madame. Solange

transforms Mad~me into a god-like figure.

"Vous ne m'intimidez plus. Réveillez le souvenir de votre amant, qu'il vous protège. Je vous hais! Je hais votre poitrine pleine de souffles embaumés. Votre poitrine ... d'ivoire! Vos cuisses... d'orf Vos pieds ... d'ambre!"

According to Solange, during the night, Claire secretly parades around the apartment in Madame's dresses, playing the queen, Marie-Antoinette. Through her performances, Claire seeks to incarnate the status wh;ch Madame's and "Marie Antoinette's' femininity represents for the two maids. The real Madame is not the sovereign feminine figure which Claire desires ta become and Solange both despises and admires. Madame is an impoverished version of the fake Madame. The real Madame is neither as beautiful, as flamboyant nor as wicked as Claire's enactment of Madame. The real Madame is only an absolute figure in relation to her maids. Outside the apartment, Madame ;s subm;ss;ve to her lover, Monsieur, who;s in turn at the mercy of the police. The stature of Madame is paraI/el to that of Marie-Antoinette which Genet reters ta as hollow, pl aster statue in Notre-Dame·Des-Fleurs!' The maids can never attain the power which they seek in adopting the gestures of

tOGenet, Les Bonnes, 28 . •, Genet, Not,e-Dame-Des-F1eurs, 154. 24

'absolute' feminine figures because such women exist purely on the level of image. The homely maids' desire to assume the beauty of Madame can be c:ompared to Divine's desire to maintain a beautlful, youthful and feminine appearance. Both the maid and Divine are imprisoned by the phantasmatic presence of femininity.

The attainment of an absolute sense of masculinity IS an equally impossible enterprise in Querella de Brest. Through an exaggerated portrayal of masculinity, Genet constructs absolute male figllres only to deflate them in the end. Querelle's strength, beauty and emotional aloofness, renders hlm the epitomy of masculinity in the eyes of Lieutenant Seblon, who fantasizes about surrendering himself to the sailor, Querelle. Nevertheless, Querelle does not fit the mould in which Seblon casts him. Sy virtue of Querelle's willingness to be sexually dominated by Norbert, Querelle assumes the passive or 'female' position. Furthermore, through Norbert's sexual involvement wlth Querelle, Norbert's dominant position is eroded. During Intercourse with Querelle, Norbert begins to express enjoyment, which in terms of the novel reveals Norbert's femininity. Madame Lysiane's masculine veneer disappears when she expresses uneasp, about the similarities between the identical twins, her lover Robert and his brother, Querelle. Upon seeing the incertitude ln his mistress, Robert's glance strips her of her male authority.42 Furthermore, Mario's imposing masculinity crumbles in Dédé's presence. As Genet writes, "Pourtant il paraissait étrange à Dédé que la Police parût trembler en face d'un voyou, et pour la première fois il redouta que cette puissance invisible, ideale, qu'il servait et derrière quoi il s'abritait, ne fut composée que de faiblesses humaines."43 Although Lieutenant Seblon has a virile appearance, he is

42 Genet, Querelle de Bres', 163. 43 Ibid. 25

haunted by the femininity that lurks within him: "II était de belle carrure, large d'épaules, mais il sentait en lui-même la présence de sa féminité contenue quelquefois dans un petit oeuf de mésange, de la grosseur d'une dragée bleue pâle ou rose, et quelquefois débordant pour s'épandre dans tout son corps qu'elle remplissait de lait." ....

The masculine does not exist absolutely but is continuously being underm ined by the feminine Although Genet reveals that masculinity and femininity can never be

incarnated in an absolute sense by actual men and women, he discloses how the actual enactment of sexual identities refers to archetypal models. In the

following passage from Querelle de Brest, Genet reveals how the masculinity of each individual sailor is viewed in terms of an archetypal sailor that exists solely in the narrator's imagination: Seule me calme cetter pensée qu'il n'existe qu'un marin: le marin. Et chaque individu que je vois n'est que la momentanée représentation - fragmentaire aussi, et réduite - du Marin. "en a tous les caractères: la vigueur, la dureté, la beauté, la cruauté, etc. sauf la multiplicité. Chaque matelot qui passe sert à comparer le Marin. Tous les matelots m'apparaissent-ils vivants, présents, à la fois, tous et aucun d'eux séparément ne serait le marin qu'ils composent et qui ne peut être que dans mon imagination, qui ne peut être qu'en moi et par moi. Cette idée m'apaise. Je possèd~ le Marin. 45

A comparison can be made between the absolute male and female images which Genet's characters attempt to imitate and the archetypal sailor. The maids imitate an absent Madame in the same way that ordinary sail ors can be compared to the Sallor, who is a phantasmatic figure. Through the impossibility of isolating an actual abject of reference upon

44 Ibid., 27.

45 Ibid., 122 26 which mimetology depends, Genet questions the nature of reflection. Genet's displacement of the relationship between imitator and imltated can be addressed in light of Jacques Derrida's displacement of the Platonic model of mimesis. Although the Platonlc model is only one of the mimetic relationshlps whlch Derrida displaces, it can be used as an illustration of the way which mimetic relations are displaced in general in Derndian philosophy. Accordlng to Derrida, Plato constructs a hierarchical opposition between speech and writing. As speech extends directly from the voice it is fully present and marks a point of origin. Speech is regarded as the father figure which is life, goodness, being and truth. Memory is on the side of speech. 41 Wnting is inferior to speech because it mimes both speech and me."ory.H ln the Platonic model of mimetology, the imitator can never truly possess the object of reference. Therefore, writing as the opposite of speech occupies the space of death, evil, non-being and falsehood. Although Plato claims that writing appears to facilitate the memory, writing fundamentally corrupts memory by weakening its power through its reliance on writing. 48 Moreover, writing's ability to mime memory has the potential to undermine the binary division which Plato establishes to separate writing from speech. As memory occupies the same side of the binary oppositions as speech, which is the side of being and truth, memory can not become duplicated or copied without occupying the falseness and non-being of writing. Consequently, Plato establishes a distinction between unrepresentable live memory which possesses an absolute plenitude

.1 Jacques Derrida, DisseminatIOn. trans. Barbara Johnson (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981) 127 . • 7 Ibid., 105. ·'In Plato's philosophy, the status of writing is as ambiguous as that of the 'pharmakon'. Pharmakon, the Greek word for rernedy elicits the opposing definitions of cure and disease. By virtue of its ambiguity, the pharrnakon operates on bath sides of the binary oppositions, which structure Plato's worldview. Due to the pharmakon's potential to cure, the pharmakon represents good; however, as the pharmakon alsa ahers the natural IIfe of disease, it represents eviI, as weil. See Jacques Derrida, Dissemination, 99-100,109.

f 27

of being, and live memory, a substitute, which can be duplicated. As Derrida

states, "Memory is thus contaminated by ifs flrst substitute: hypomnesis. But

what Plato dreams of is a memory with no sign. That is with no supplement. "41 Derrida reveals that it is difficult to distinguish the supplement trom the original.

Live memory, which is the repetition of the living truth, and memory, which IS

facilitated by writing, can become indistinguishable. The supplement is dangerous because it reveals that the copy can pass for the onginal.!Il Furthermore, the supplement ilJustrates that the division between the being of the original and the non-being of the supplement is not

rigid...... the supplem'~nt is not, is not a being (on). It is nevertheless not a simple nonbetng (me on), either. Its slidings slip it out of the simple alternative presence/absence. That is the danger."51 If writing mimes speech, writing

occupies both the being, presence and truth of the original and the non-being, absence and falsehood of imitation. Writing is "the movement, the locus, and the play of opposites."SI By miming speech, writing threatens the absolute plenitude which Plato claims speech passesses. Any entity that can be copied does not possess full plenitUde of being. In an analysis of the link between iterabilityand plenitude in Derridian philosophy, Rodolphe Gasché states that

"... iterability is the impurity of an absence that from the star~, prohibits the full

and rigorous attainments of the plenitude of a unit and that in principle subverts its self-identity."53 Derrida's concept of "différance" is linked ta the impossibilityof plenitude.

Derrida argues that the present can only be conceptualized in relation to the

4'lbid., 109. 50 Ibid.

Il Ibid. ( 12 Ibid., 127 , ., Rodolphe Gasché, The Tain of the Mi"or: Derrida and the Philosophy of Reflectlon (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986), 213. 28 past and the future. "Every instant is marked with traces of past and future."~

Presence can never be viewed as an actual space of moment but "the effect of a generalized absence of 'dlfférance'.55 Although Plato claims that speech is fully present, Derrida reveals how Platonism reverts to the 'scriptural' metaphor to identify individual sounds. As an individual sound can only be conceived in relation to other sounds, speech like writing is marked by difference. 58 Speech does not exist in itself, but is in reality a supplement for an absent origin. 57

"Le jeu est dangereux",!iS says Solange, expressing fear that Madame will discover their secret play-acting ceremony. An analogy could be drawn between the danger in the maids' play and in the play of the supplement, for both threaten the Platonic model of mimetology by subverting the relationship between the referent and its copy. When Claire imitates Madame she fuses the oppositions of originallcopy. Claire, as Madame, brings together both the presence of Madame as a copy and the absence of Madame as the original.

Furthermore, throughout the play, the distinction between the real Claire or Madame and their fake correspondents is often blurred, leaving the audience in the precarious pOSition of not knowing whether sJhe is watching the original or the copy. As Les Bonnes opens in the middle of orle of the maids' ceremonies, the audience is forced to take the fake maid and fake Madame for the real ones.

White tricking his audience, Genet depicts how the copy can substitute for the original. According to Derrida, as an original identity can not be imltated, the original does not possess the plenitude of being necessary for constituting a point of origin. Applying Derrida's claim to Les Bonnes, it could be argued that, as Madame's being can be copied, she do es not possess the plenitude of being

54 Jonathon D. Culler, On Deconstruction (Cornall: ComelllP. 1982) 93. 55 Ibid., 94. 5' Derrida, Dissemination, 163.

57 Ibid., 167. 51 Genet, Les Bonnes, 54. 29 l of an origin. The original in Derrida's philosophy, like the 'real' Madame in Genet's play, al ways has the status of the copy which is marked by a lack of full presence. In Les Bonnes, Genet reveals how Madame's being is marked by difference as she is defined and exists in relation to another, namely, the maid. Through the mald's performance of Madame or Divine's performance of a woman, Genet reveals the iterability of the ideal archetype of femininity. Consequently, when the maid puts on the feminine, she refers to an 'originary' archetype of femininity, Madame. Furthermore, the sailors in Querelle de Brest are compared to the archetypal sailor which can be regarded as the quintessential male figure. If Genet's manipulation of identity is approached from a Derridian perspective, it could be argued that the enactment of femininity or masculinity which appears to reter to an original and ideal concept of gendered identity, in fact refers to a false original or a non-original original, as both masculinity and femininity can never be absolutely embodied. ln any given mimetic relation, the source or originary point of reference is

a supplement. !II Although Rousseau establishes a distinction between the origin and the supplement, in De la grammatologie, Derrida displaces Rousseau's distinction and unveils a supplement at the source. By combining the two meanings of "supplement", which are addition and replacement, Derrida is able to dismantle Rousseau's position. As Rousseau takes "supplement" to mean only addition, he claims that the supplement is al ways exterior to the

source which possesses full presence. ID By applying the second meaning of "supplement" to Rousseau's theory, Derrida argues that the "supplement" could only be an addition to and a replacement of an original source if the source

51 Jacques Derrida, 01 Grammatology, trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Baltimore, London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1976) 304. eo Ibid., 167. 30 itself were marked by a lack of plenitude. e1

Sy positing a supplement at the source, Derrida displaces the binary oppositions of being/appearance and truthlfalsehood which govern mimetic relationships that are based upon the imitations of an originary presence. Traditionally, mimetology claims that the original object of imitation incarnates truth and exists in itself whereas the copies, as representations of the onginal, reproduce only falsehood and appearance. Sy unveihng the origin as an absent presence and revealing that the supplement can replace the ongln, Derrida disrupts the binary framework that structures mimetology. In Derridian terms, the process of reflection can no longer be regarded as a false imitation of a true original source but rather blurs the distinction between the binary opposition of true and false while simultaneously maintaining the division. The logic whlch Derrida employs to iIIustrate the play of differences assumes a myriad of forms, such as the logic of the pharmakos in "Plato's Pharmacy," of the hymen in "The Double Session," and of the supplement in Of Grammatology, of which ail three offer a similar method for dealing with binary oppositions. Derrida de scribes this method as "an operation that both sows confusion between opposites and stands between the opposites "at once."t!! As Derrida reveals that both the 'origin' and its copies are in fact copies, a true and complete source of imitation vanishes. Consequently, the simulacrum, and absent origin, can be said to be neither true nor false, and neither present nor absent, real nor fake but rather operate within these oppositions, blurring the distinction between them without ever going beyond them completely or fully embodying them. Derrida's concept of the absent origin and of the play of differences can

81 Gashé, The Tain 01 the Mi"or, 208. 82 Derrida, Dissemination. 213. 31

be applied ta Genet's texts to question the genesis of archetypal sex categories that hls characters strive to embody. As it has been iIIustrated that Genet's characters imitate archetypal figures that are not fully present but are absent ongins, it could be argued that It is the actual imitation of archetypal figures that constructs the onglnal source. The sailor's performance of masculinity, through identifications with the ideal sailor, or the maids' performance of femininlty,

through identifications with an idealized Madame, constructs the idea! which IS supposedly being imitated. As the criteria for the "perfeet" man or woman are

actually constructed bodily through the performances by actual "imperfect" men and women, Genet reveals the social construction of original identities. Once the actual genesis of original identities is unravelled and it becomes apparent that 'true' original sources are produced by false imitation, then the notion of true and false identities becomes meaningless. The 'truth' of an identity lies in its performance. In light of Derrida, the displacement of the origin elicits a

confusion between such binary divisions as truelfalse, real/apparent and naturallartificial. Once these binary divisions become suspect so does identity based upon mimetic identification, for such identification is dependent upon binary differentiation. When Genet's characters assume another identity, they are not hiding their true identity with a false one but are performing an identity that can not be neatly classified as either simply true or false. When the maids

perform 'Madame', they are not simply assuming a false îdentity but are also constructing an identity through theîr performance. Furthermore, Divine's female identity is not simply a masquerade which she assumes to conceal her true male nature. Genet reveals that when Divine puts on female gestures, these gestures are not merely a disguise but a becoming female. On pourrait croire que, revenant ainsi sp"ntanément à sa ( véritable nature, Divine était un mâle maqUillé, echevelé de gestes postiches; mais il ne s'agit pas de ce phénomème de la 32

langue maternelle à laquelle on a recours aux heures graves ., Sa féminité n'était pas qu'une mascarade. Mais pour penser "femme" en plein, ses organes la gênaient. Penser, c'est faire un acte. 53

Divine's femlninity IS neither completely true nor completely false but IS as 'true' and as 'false' as the femininity performed by anatomlcal females Femininity is false in the sense that as an original identity or obJect of reference to be imitated. It can not be isolated, but it is true in the sense that it IS performed. Femininity like masculinity is a social construct whose "truth" lies in its performance by actual men and women. As Genet deviates trom an Identlty construct that assumes the rigidity of binary oppositions, his works iIIumlnate Judith Butler's claim that identity operates in between the polarities of binary oppositions, a position which underlies Derridian logic. Although Judith Butler argues that the way in which an individual performs herlhis sex is determined by the dictates of 'compulsory hetefosexuality'. the body is not merely a passive recipient of its identity. Sexual identities are neither completely determined nor arbitrary but function within the polarities of determination and free will. Although men and women perform their sex according to the heterosexual criteria of natural and ideal sexual behaviour, through adherence to gender norms, each individual is participating in the production of sexual stereotypes. e4 Through the body performance of masculinity and femininity, the socially constructed masculine 'superiority' and feminine 'submissiveness' is corporeally perpetuated. According to Erving GOffman, gender display does not merely refleci the asymetric relation between the sexes but rather, uThese expressions constitute the hierarchy they are the shadow and the substance. "86 Genet iIIustrates that sex categories do not refer to natural and true

13 Genet, Notre-Dame-Des-Reurs, 257-258.

84 Butler, Gender 7i'ouble, 136. 85 Goffman, Gender Advertisements, 6. 33

identities but rather the criteria for natural and ideal sexual expression are constructed by the actual performance of sexual identities in accordance to the dictates of heterosexual hegemony. Nevertheless, the mechanism or discourse that constructs the natural and ideal expression of gendered identity, prevails and imposes a real and oPr:'ressive effect upon the lives of men and women. In Genet's works two forces are continuously at play - the simultaneous dismantling and maintaining of essential concepts of masculinity and femininity. Although Genet deconstructs the categories of masculinity and femininity, his works are obsessively concerned with maintaining sexual stereotypes. Through hls seemingly contradictory stance, Genet reveals that, although masculinity and femlnlnity are constructs, they continue to function as essences within society. Because of Genet's ambivalent portrayal of sexual categories, his works can be approached from an essentialist constructivist perspective. Are not essentialism and constructivism antithetical to one another? According to Diana Fuss, essentlallsm lurks within constructivism, a theoretical stand which includes Derridian deconstruction. Fuss claims that " ... any radical constructionism can only be built on the foundations of a hidden essentialism."œ ln particular the idea of contradiction or 'différence' in Derridian logic surfaces as the given or "essence" of deconstruction. Contradiction IS at the center of deconstruction and is the prerequisite for its operation 67 Furthermore, Fuss reveals that the clalm, that essentlalism is always reactionary, is an essentialist claim as It assumes that essentialism has an essence. B8 Moreover, she argues that Derrida himself would agree that a given theory can never completely

ee Diana Fuss, Essenfially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and Difference (New York: Routledge, 1989) 13 e7lbid., 18. ,a Ibid., 21. ------

transgress metaphysics. As western metaphyslcs is based upon the binary

opposition of essence/accident, essentialism will always emerge. t8 As social constructivism can not escape essentialism, it is possible to speak about an essentialist deconstruction. When essentialism and deconstruction are combJned, the 1unction of essentialism is radically altered. Traditionally feminists have been opposed to essentlalism because it has been used to explain social conditions in terms of biological givens. However, once essentialism is incorporated in a deconstructivist stance It can not be for the purpose of malntainlng universal essences, for deconstruction Illustrates how ail concepts including essences are historically contingent. Fuss draws a distinction between 1alling into essentialism or deploying it strateglcally. Falhng into an essentialism would entail a return to universal categories, whereas deploying essentialism strategically would maintain certain "essences" in the interest of those who have a political investment in their maintenance while simultaneously recognlzing that these essences are mere constructs. 70 Although Genet eradicates masculinity and femininity as universal essences, he reveals that these essences continue to operate. As the discourse that produces essences actively represses certain groups in society, it is not in thelr interest to have these essences dismissed as non-constructs. Essences are to be maintained not for their inherent value as they are mere signs, but rather because of the discursive relations which produce them. The socially-constructed precept 01 male dominance imposes actual restraints upon the lives of women and, ln particular in Genet's works, the lives of men. In both Querelle de Brest and Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, any

S'Ibid., 13. 70 Ibid., 20.

- 35

biologically-male individu al whose body elicits 'femininity' becomes an object of contempt Ironically, in the largely homosexual realm of Genet's novels, only efteminate men are label/ed 'homosexual.' An equation is made between homosexuality and femininity in Genet's works. Although most of the men in Genet's works engage in homosexual acts, only those who are sexually passive are considered homosexuals. 1I The dominant homosexual possesses the power of the masculine. As Mignon, the dominant male figure in Notre-Dame Des-Fleurs, says, "Un mâle qui en baise un autre est un double mâle."72 Although Mignon realizes later on that his self-proclaimed absolute mple authority is false, through Mignon's declaration Genet illustrates that the myth of male dominance prevails. This myth oppresses not only women but alsa those

men within the homosexual community who can not pass for "male." The passive homosexuaJ and the homosexual who outwardly flaunts his femininity is despised by the other 'masculine' homosexuals because they represent the stigma of inferiority that homosexuals must endure in a heterosexual hegemony.1J The asymetric binary opposition of male/female and heterosexual"'omosexuaf are intertwined in Genet's work, thus revealing that the maleness that is privileged in the homosexuaJ community is the masculinity of the heterosexual world which entails the subordination of woman and • 'unnatural' men. Through the outside world's reaction to the femininity and the homosexuality of the drag queen, Divine, Genet brings forth the oppressive power of masculine and heterosexuaJ dominance. Genet writes, "Le café disparut et Divine fut métamorphosée en une de ces bêtes peintes sur les

11 Ester Newton claims that in certain homosexual communities a man who is sexually dominant ean be oonsidered 'normal', that is not homosexual. See Newton, Mather Camp, 102. 12 Genet. Not,s-Dame-Des-Fleurs. 284. 13 The stigma that is conveyed in Genet's warks has been elaborated upon in sociologieal studies of homosexuality. See Newton, Mothe, Camp, 108. and Kenneth Plumme" "Some Interaction Problems of the Homosexual," Sexual Stigma: An Interactionist Account (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975) 175. 36 murailles - chimères ou griffons - car un consommateur, malgré lui murmura un mot magique en pensant à elle: - Pédérasque. 14 As a result of the stigma that the label of homosexuality carries, most of the homosexuals in Jean Genet's works conceal their identity. Ali of Genet's male characters, except for those whose gestures are feminine hke Divine's, Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs' and the girl-queens', conceal their homosexuality by performing maseuline gestures which are also the gestures of straight men III Given that masculinity is a body performance, it is not only homosexual men who put on the gestures of the straight male but also heterosexuals who must adopt the gestures that conform to a heterosexual portrayal of 'true' and 'natural' masculinity. The similarity between the expression of masculinity in the gay community and the straight community is exposed in Querelle de Brest. The fusion of the homosexual and heterosexual realms becomes apparent through Genet's ironie disclosure that none of the characters in the novel are homosexuals except for lieutenant Seblon, when, in fact, almost ail of the men in the novel engage in homosexual practices except for Seblon, whose homosexual encounters remain on the level of fantasy. Unlike Divine or Notre Dame-Des-Fleurs, the homosexuals in Querelle de Brest are not homosexuals because they perform as 'straight' men, except in a few secret moments of sexual contact when they can express their desire and affection for another man. It could tle argued that the exaggerated display of masculinity in

Querelle de Brest is distinctly homosexual. 18 Nevertheless, through the charade of maseulinity in Querelle de Brest Genet diseloses that the body's performance of masculinity, which is defined in terms of heterosexual norms, is

74 Genet, Not,s-Dams-Dss-Fleurs, 41. 75 For a discussion of how homosexuals are forced ta conceal their sexual orientation and at times play 'straight' in order to function successfully in a heter068xual society, see Plumrner, "Some Interaction Problems of the Homosexual", 194 and Newton, Mother Camp 108. 71 Newton, Mother Camp, 102. 37

neither a biological given nor an ideal construct but is a sexual expression that is put on by both homosexual and heterosexual men alike. The failure to present one's body in accordance to the dictates of heterosexual hegemony bears punitive consequences.77 Jean Genet demonstrates how the teminine man is punished by society. As already mentioned, Divine finds herselt ostracized as a result of her feminine performance of her biologically-male body. Others, however, receive harsher sentences. In Querelle de Brest, Querelle, who is a homosexual himself but does not appear overtly homosexual or feminine, murders his seducer the Armenian, Joachim, because he flaunts his homosexuality through a bodily expression of femininity. Querelle, who strives throughout the novel to maintain the position of the absolute male figure, feels his murderous actions are justified. Speaking for Querelle, Genet writes of the murdered man.

Si c'est cela un pédé, ce n'l'st pas un homme. Ça ne pèse pas lourd. C'est un petit chat, un bouvreuil, un faon, un orvet. une libellule dont la fragilité même est provocatrice et précisément exagérée afin qu'elle attire inévitablement la mort.n

The desire to conform to a feminine ideal becomes an oppressive impulse in Les Bonnes. As masculinity is virtually absent in the play. with the exception of a few allusions to the male figures of Monsieur and the milkman, Genet establishes a hierarchical relationship between two kinds of femininity

within the closed environment of Madame's apartment. Rather than elaborating upon the malelfemale relationship between Madame and Monsieur, Genet concentrates upon the asymmetric relationship between the power of

( 71 Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology .. and Feminist Theory." 522 . " Genet, Querelle De Brest, 217. 38

Madame's overt display of femininity and the impotent and impoverished femininity of the maids. Consequently, within the context of the play and specifically Madame's apartmenl, Madame occupies the dominant position typically held by a male figure. Although the maids are women,78 they do not possess th.,) gestures of overt femininity nor the artifice, such as dress, jewellery and make-up, which are essential for producing a sexualized and desirable female object. In "Comment Jouer les Bonnes", Genet comments upon the appearance of the maids: Leur visage, au début, est donc marqué des rides aussi subtiles que les gestes ou qu'un de leurs cheveux. E"es n'ont ni cul ni seins provocants: elles pourraient enseigner la piété dans une institution chrétienne. 80

Madame represents the femininity that the maids desire and want to become. The maids, and in particular Claire, can never incarnate Madame's femininity because Madame herselt does not embody it. The power of Madame's femininity, which generates trom the maid's idealization of Madame's beauty and wickedness, exists only in the confines of the apartment. Claire's desire to become the idealized woman that the maids envi sion is their mistress is both an imprisoning and impossible goal. Similarly, in Notre-Dame-Des Fleurs, Divine is plagued by the impossible desire ta remain a feminlne beauty. Although, for Genet, femininity can not be fixed as an ideal or natural construct, the di~course of idealized and natural female identity exercises a repressive force upon those men and women who are compelled ta adhere to an

7. Even if the maids' role are played by boys, the portrayal of the servants' femininity would probably not be differant than if they were played by womt'n. Casting boys to play the two maids would nonetheless emphasize that femininity is put on aneS performed. 10 Genet, "Comment Jouer les Bonnes", Les Bonnes, 8 Genet adds in "Comment Jouer Les Bonnes" that during the performance, the maids gradually become more beautiful. Although he does not provide an explanation for the graduai amelioration of the maids' appearance, it oould be argued that as the maids attempt to both incamate and destroy Madame, they begin to assu; 'le her beauty. 39

( archetypal po rt rayai of the feminine. Masculinity and femini.1ity in Genet's realm become corporeal gestures which can be appropriated and manipulated by both genital-sexed men and genital-sexed women. Nevertheless, the system of compulsory heterosexuality, which operates in Genet's works, ensures that men will perform masculine gestures and women will perform feminine gestures by punishing those individuals who deviate trom normative sexual behaviour. The hierarchical structure of heterosexuality which privileges masculinity above femininity is disclosed in Genet's works. Furthermore, his works iIIustrate how the male dominance of heterosexuality extends into homosexual interactions. While Genet unleashes sexual identity from any reference to an original, fixed and true nature, he simultaneously depicts how individuals strive to embody archetypal constructs of the absolute and perfeet male and female figure. As Genet's works unveil that it is individuals' performance of their sexuality that constructs arehetypal identities, the quest to imitate the perfeet woman or man becomes a futile and imprisoning endeavour.

( l Race, Rltual and Play ln Les Nègres

"Le nègre n'est pas. Pas plus que le Blanc"

- Frantz Fanon, Peau Noire, Masques Blancs

Genet questions the concept of race as a viable mark of differentiation in Les Nègres. Although Genet presents both blacks and whites in a stereotypie light, he reveals simultaneously that racial identities are not fixed and separate categories. Genet portrays how black and white identlties are socially constructed and do not therefore, correspond to a fixed and absulute essence of blackness or whiteness. Once racial identity is unleashed from a signified, what constitutes race becomes the actual performance by individu ais of a given

racial identity. Judith Butler's argument, that sexual identities are performed,

can be applied to the issue of racial identity. As Butler reveals that the performance of masculinity and femininity is determined by a compulsory heterosexuality, Genet portrays how the performance of blackness is dictated by the white conception of what is black identity. Even though the difference

between black and white identity is dissolved in Les Nègres, in the same play Genet emphasizes their distinctness. While Genet deconstructs the concept of

race by eradicating differences between blacks and whites, he slmultaneously

maintains racial differen~iation to reveaJ the oppressive effects of essentialist based concepts of racial identity. Through the paradoxical po rt rayai of racial differentiation in Les Nègres, Genet iIIustrates how the effects of stereotypic and

essentialist-based concepts of black and white identity prevail even though

racial differentiation as a means to separate blacks and whites IS a social

constl uction maintained by white hegemony and not based on actual biological

.., 41

differences. The writings of various theorists of race relations such as Frantz Fanon, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Houston A. Baker, Timothy Maliqualim Simone, Jr., Diana Fuss, Joyce A. Joyce, Anthony Appiah, Bell Hooks, Marilyn Frye and Angela Y. Davis will be used to address the issue of racial differentiation in Les

Nègres. Each of these theorists deals with race relation~ from a particular context. In Peau Noire, Masques Blancs, Fanon deals with th,'" problem of race from the perspective of the Antillian man and woman, under white French colonlzation. The writings of Gates, Baker, Joyce, Appiah, Fuss and Simone deal with issues of race in American society. Hooks, Frye and Davis focus on

the interconnection of racism and sexism in American society. Although Les

Nègres is written in French, the play does not deal explicitly with any particular racial situation but portrays the racism and oppression that blacks experience in a society where whites dominate. Les Nègres portrays the issue of race in a manner that reflects diverse theoretical discourses on black and white relations. The following analysis addresses those issues of race relations that could be applied to various social contexts rather than focusing on a particular group.

The following reading of racial identity in Jean Genet's Les Nègres deviates from a purely Sartrian model. Nevertheless, the issue of idenmy which underlines Genet's play has been largely approached from a Sartrian

perspective. 1 A link has been made between the repeated ceremonies in the play and Genet's quest for being as laid out by Sartre. Genet's characters, together with the author himself, are forced to partake in repetitive gestures in search of their being only to find that their goal leads to nothingness. Although a great deal of Sartre's analysis of Genet does facilitate an understanding of

( 1 For an outJine of the major critics of Genet who have been mfluenced by Sartre. see Una Chaudhuri, No Man's Stage: A Semiotic Study of Jean Genet's Major Plays(Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986) 1·2. 42

how the ceremonies iIIuminate Genet's concept of identity, Sartre's theory, if applied faithfully to Genet's theatre, does not take into account the complexities

of racial identity.

Since Sartre's port rayai of Genet seems to be ever-present in a great deal of critical works on Genet, it is necessary to reveal how a reading of Les Nègres could convey the Sartrian concept of identity. Before the play can be analyzed from a Sartrian perspective, it is imperative to provide an

understanding of Sartre's theory, which has enabled critics to reduce Genet's

ceremonies to empty gestures. 2

According to Sartre, when Genet's foster parents accuse him of being a

thief, Genet is radically altered. From that moment on Genet's belng IS imposed

upon him.3 He first becomes conscious of who he is through the words of

another. Being and language become one. 4 Both Genet's essence and

language become the property of the other. From the moment that he is named

a thief, he ceases to exist in himself and is dead.5 Genet incarnates the world

of nothingness and non-being which is opposed to the realm of the condemner, the other who contains being. The moment that Genet is named a thief marks his entry into a world organized in a dualistic framework whlch opposes Evil, which is nothingness, non-being and objectivity, and Good, where being and subjectivity lie.

Genet decides to consciously will to be that which IS thrown upon him in order to capture his beir -1. 6 Sy willing to be a thief, Genet desires to be a non being. He is consequently throwing together two incompatible world systems,

2 Sylvie Debevec Henning, Genet's Ritual Play (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1982) 41. 3 Jean-Paul Sartre, Saint Genet: Comedien et Marlyr(Paris: Gallimard, 1952) 43. 4lbid., 45. 5 Ibid., 26. 6 Ibid., 79. 43

the realm of the Good and of Evil. A project which is doomed to fail.7 If by actually stealing or murdering, Genet does assume the evil nature that has been projected upon him, he merely reinforces how the good perceives him. To capture his essence through crime, his criminal acts must remain Imaginary. A

true crime is really a fa~;e crime. 8 By performing an imaginary crime, the criminal bestows being upon his gesture for an instant before it vanishes into

non-being, as the crime never in fact occurred. 9 Genet is caught up in the whirligigs of GrJod and Evil which send him spinning from one side of the dialectic to the other only to return to where he started.10 Before Sartre's theory can be applied to Les Nègres, it is necessary to relate Genet's play. As the play opens, a group of blacks dance a minuet around a draped catafalque. Then Archibald, a black man and the master of ceremonies, introduces the blacks to the members of the white court, who are mounted on a platform. The members of the court, who are actually black actors wearing white masks. impersonate archetypal figures - a queen and her valet. a missionary, a judge and a governor. Ali the blacks, except Ville de Saint Nazaire, are gathered before the court to perform the ceremony the y enact every night - the rape-murder of a white woman. Before the ceremony begins. Archibald sends Ville de Saint-Nazaire away as he is supposed to assist in a trial and execution of a black traitor offstage. There is a potential anti-white revolution brewing in the world outside the play realm. The ceremony begins as Diouf takes on the role of the white female victim by putting on a blond wig, white mask and full skirt. Village. who assumes the role of the rapistlmurderer, plays at the seduction and rllpe of the

7 Ibid., 66. 1 Ibid., 90. ( 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid., 313. 44 white woman. The actual "murder" occurs offstage. The white court comes down from its platform and attempts to avenge the black realm, which is named "Africa", for the murder of the white woman. In turn, each of the members of the court is assassinated by the blacks. The black actors who are playing the court rem ove their masks and ail the characters exit, except Village and Vertu who express their love for one another. In the final part of the play, the blacks dance a minuet to Mozart's Don Giovanni around the catafalque, which the play earlier revealed IS an iIIusionary corpse. An analogy can be drawn between Genet's position in society as postulated by Sartre and the lot of the blacks in Les Nègres. Seing separated by virtue of skin colour from the white society, the blacks incarnate everything that is not white. like the good society which rejected Genet, the whites are synonymous with light, goodness, beauty, love whereas the blacks are pushed into the realm of Evil where darkness, sin, ugliness and hate prevail. 11 While Archibald introduces the blacks to the court, he reveals the asymmetric relation that determines the characteristics of each group. As Archibald says, "Vous le voyez, mesdames, messieurs, comme vous avez vos lis et vos roses, pour vous servir nous utiliserons nos fards d'un beau noir lui!;ant." 12 The hierarchical binary opposition which divides the white world from the black world emerges in Genet's integration of stereotypic categories of white and black attributes that exist in the French language. Frantz Fanon, in Peau Noire, Masques Blancs, iIIustrates how hierarchical racial differences are constructed in French. As Fanon says, "Le Noir davantage. pour la bonne raison qu'il est noir. Ne dit-on pas, dans la symbolique, la Blanche Justice, la Blanche Vérité, la Blanche

Vierge? Nous avons connu un Antillais qui, parlant d'un autre, disaIt: 'Son

11 Jean Genet, Les Nègres: Clownerie et Pour Jouer les Nègres (Paris: Marc Barbezat L'Arbalète, 1963) 44. 12 Ibid., 24. 45

( corps est noir, sa langue est noire .. .'13 The blacks in Les Nègres are subjugated by this hierarchlcal binary system set up by the whltes. Furthermore, the essence of a black man or black woman is imposed upon him or her from the outside. The blacks can only seize their being through the other. Like Genet, the blacks are caught in a masterlslave relationship in which their being is imposed upon them As Genet's imaginary crimes are ceremonies he pertorms in order to be a thief, the blacks pertorm their ceremony of rape-murder in (Jrder to be black.

Archibald reveals the goal of the blacks' cri minai act when he says, "Le tragique

sera dans la couleur noirel C'est elle que vous chérirez, rejoindrez, mériterez. C'est elle qu'il faudra gagner."14 The blacks' goal is to be black according to the image of blackness that has been cast upon them. While the ceremony is intended to deliver the blacks trom their imposed identity, it merely sends them spinning in Sartre's whirligigs. Seing part of the realm of evil, the blacks incarnate non-being, nothingness and appearance.

The ceremony of rape and murder of the white woman is merely iIIusionary.

The murder never occurs and the supposed victim is a black man playing a white woman. The action of the blacks is reduced to mere illusion and collapses back into the realm of nothingness where the whites have confined them.

Sartre's theory appears problematic because it reduces the entirety of Genet's creative endeavours to the fulfillment of one single and individual

goal. 15 Nevertheless, it should not be completely dismissed. Elements of Sartre's theory cohere with Les Nègres. It emerges clearly in the play that black identity has been imposed upon blacks and that the essence of a black or a

13 Frantz Fanon, Peau NoIre, Masques Blancs (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1952) 147. ( 14Genet, Les Nègres, 30. 15Chaudhuri, No Man's Stage, 2. 46

white person is determined by their outward appearance. Although the goal of the ceremony clearly invokes the Sartrian idea that the blacks' game is an

attempt to become the identity that has been imposed upon them, it IS questionable whether the ceremony merely leads the blacks to nothlngness. The principle problem with applying Sartre's critique of Genet is that it does not taKe into account the theatricality of the plaY.16 The conclusion that Genet's ceremonies lead to nothingness is concretely negated in the theatre. As Chaudhuri asks, "For how can nothingness, and its processive antecedent, negation, be evoked and implemented in the int~nsely physical medium that IS theater?"17 ln order to illustrate how the issue of identity and in particular racial identity in Genet's plays entails more than an enactment of nothingness, it is necessary to reveal how the ceremonyof murder, the micro-play, IS a falled ritual within the actual ritualized theatre of the work as a whole.

Although critic~ have called the ceremony in Les Nègres a ritual, it will be iIIustrated that the blacks' ceremony is in fact a failed ritual. It was Sartre who first remarked upon the ritualistic nature of Genet's theatre, by referring to the maid's ceremony in Les Bonnes as a black mass. 18 Defining the blacks' ceremony as a ritual is problematic because of the myriad of meanings which this term evokes. 19 Nevertheless, the concept of ritual can be narrowed down to entail certain common characteristics which appear to surface in the blacks' ceremony. A ritual is often mimetic in the sense that it refers to an original act. It is often comprised of repetltive gestures that bear symbolic meaning. The goal of a ritualls usually the reaffirmation of communal values. Finally, the space of

16 Ibid., 10

17 Ibid., 6. 18 Jean-Paul Sartre, Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr, trans. Bernard Frechtman (New York: Pantheon, 1963). 19 Richard C. Webb, "Ritual, Theatre and Jean Genet's Les NégreS', Theatre Journal, 42. 4 (1974): 447. 47

the ritual becomes sacred and separate from the profane. 2O The ceremony in Les Nègres is riddled with paradox. Although it

appears to be based upon a ritualistic form, it simultaneously rejects its

underlying structure. The blacks' ceremony does not remain sacred despite Archibald's Insistence upon maintaining a clear division between the realm of the ceremony, the sacred space, and the profane area outside the ceremony. Throughout the play, various characters do not follow the ritual set out by Archibald and consequently defy the sacredness of the rite. As Archibald says when Neige eats some of the flowers that are part of the performance, "Votre geste d'enfa~t gâtée n'appartenait pas au rite."21 He says later on to Village who tries to act independently, "C'est à moi qu'il faut obéir. Et au texte que nous avons mis au point."22 Despite Archibald's attempts, the black actors do not fully adhere to the fixed procedures of the rite and consequently violate its sacredness. Not only is the ceremony in Les Nègres not completely sacred, it also do es not imitate an original act. According to Una Chaudhuri, the blacks' ceremony of rape and murder is transformed into a ritual because it mimics an original incident.23 Nevertheless, it could be argued that the crime in the ceremony only appears to refer to an original murder. Before the ceremony actually begins, the actors speak about the catalfaque that is on stage. Each night, the ceremony demands a new white corpse as a prop for the murder ceremony. Village states that hidden under the drapery is the body of a street woman that he murdered the night before. During the ceremony Village does not enact the murder he just committed but an entirely different incident. In the

20 These aspects of ritual can be found in René Girard's Violence and the Sacred, trans. R. Gregory (1977; rpt. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1979). 21 Genet, Les Négres, 29. 22 Ibid., 31. 23Chaudhuri, No Man's Stage, 107. 48

'j. rite. Village and the other actors act out the murder of a young white woman, Marie. The blacks' ceremony do es not mimic an original murder but produces new yet nonmlmetic murders. The ceremony fails as a ntual through its Inability to realize the sacnficlal murder enacted to reaffirm the social order which ln terms of the play is the separation of black and white identities. According to René Girard, the purpose of the repeated ritualized murder of a sacrificial vlctlm is the liberatlon of society from a state of non-differentiatio'1 which constantly threatens the social order. The sacrifice establishes a distinction between the community and tlle victim. According to Girard, clear distinctions between identities prevent social chaos. Even though his theory reveals that the difference which the scapegoat establishes is a fake one, as the victim is denved from the society itself, he claims that the scapegoat's death can prevent an eruption of non-differentiation from disrupting the social order. 24 The ceremony in Genet's play reveals the inherent contradiction in employing a scapegoat to establish distinctions between identities. The fake white woman, who is the sacrificial victim ln the ceremony, can be compared to a Girardian victim by virtue of the fact that "she" originates from the black world and is projected into the white world As the ritual is a failure in Les Nègres. the goal of the sacrifice can not be attained. Genet's sacrificial ceremony is unable to bring about a state of dlfferentiation between the two races. 25 Furthermore, the sacnficial victim, Diouf, is never portrayed as clearly part of the outside realm, the white world. As Diouf wears a white mask during the ceremony, he is neither completeiy black nor white. After the ceremony, he appears in the realm outside the black realm where, still masked, he remains an ambivalent figure.

24Debevec Henning, Genet's Ritual Play, 82. 25 This interpretation of Genet's Les Nègres has been adapted from Debevec Hennlng's analysis of Les Bonnes. See Debevec Henning, Genet's Ritual Play, 43.50. ------~------

( An illustration of how the sacrificial victim actually becomes a nexus for

the simultaneous positioning of opposing identities IS revealed by Derrida's discussion of the pharmakos, the scapegoat in ancient Greek purification rites in Athens Whenever a calamity overtook the city, some of the city's outcasts were sacnficed to purify and liberate the community from the external evil. The Athenians maintained a group of outcasts within the city for sacrificial purposes. ln order for the scapegoats to purify the city, they were cast out. Nevertheless, the victims themselves originated from the city. Derrida reveals that the scapegoat ritual can not establish a distinction between boundaries but rather

reinforces the play of opposing realms. 28

The ceremony of the pharmakos is thus played out on the boundary line between inside and outside which has as its function ceaselessly to trace and retrace. Intra muros/extra muros. The origin of difference and division, the pharmakos represents evil both introjected and projected. 27

The pharmakos is an operation that both creates confusion between opposites while maintaining their separation. The undifferentiated yet

differentiated state which emerges from Derrida's analysis of the scapegoat surfaces not only in the play's sacrificial victim, Diouf, but in ail the characters on stage. Sy virtue of their white masks, the members of the court, who are in reality blacks representing the white world, both fuse together and separate the two 'races'. The paradox emerges visually in the play. As Genet writes in Les Nègres, the members of the court are supposed to wear masks that will only partially conceal their blackness. The portrayal of whiteness is not absolute. Sartre reveals how in Genet's realm the dominant powers are equally victims of

28 Jacques Derrida, Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson (Chicago U of Chicago P, 1981) ( 133. 27 Ibid., 133. 50

appearances as those they dominate. While referring to a relationship

between a dominant and passive homosexual in Genet's fiction, Sartre claims that the dominant one's authority is undermined because his position is

dependent upon the submissive nature of the other.28 The idea that dominant power is not absolute emerges powerfully in the play when Neige cnes out to Diouf, who is dressed up as a white woman, and says, "Mais qu'est-ce qu je vois couler sur vos bas de coton noir? C'était donc vrai, Seigneur Jésus, que derrière le masque d'un Blanc pris au piège tremble de frousse un pauvre

Nègre. "29 The 'real' blacks in the play, those without masks are not completely black either. As the ceremony fai/s, the blacks are unable to be totally black and therefore differentiate themselves from the whltes. Blackness is an identity that is never in fact present As Genet says, "Mais qu'est-ce que c'est donc un noir? Et d'abord c'est de quelle couleur?"30

Through the play of masks and the fai/ure of the ritual, Genet reveals that absolute presence or the possibility of being either black or white, as defined by the white world, is unattainable. The goal of the ceremony as a means to establish fixed identities can be viewed in light of Derrida's claim that what IS sought in establishing presence is the absence of play. As Genet has done, Derrida reveals that play is inevitable. Derrida illustrates how the concept of presence actually depends upon play. In order to iIIustrate how fixed presence can not escape fluctuation, Derrida demonstrates how the concept of a centered structure owes its fundamental immobility to the concept of play. The center of a structure, by organizing the coherence of that structure, permits the slippage of its elements inside the structure's form. The center alsa closes off the element of play which it opens up and makes possible. The center is not merely within a

28 Sartre, Saint Genet, 129. 29 Genet, Les Négres, 65. 30 Ibid., 15. 51

(~ structure but lies both within and outside it.31 The coherence or fixed nature of a structure is grounded in the play of the center. According to Derrida, the center has received different forms or names in the history ot the West of which one of them is being as presence. Derrida reveals that being through its

reliance on the concept of the fixed center can not reter to an absolute presence. 32 The idea expressed in Les Nègres that black or white identity does not

reter to an essence emerges in a great deal of the critical literature on racial identity. Genet's portrayal of race mirrors Barbara Johnson's stance. Adopting a Derridian perspective, .Johnson claims that when black and white identity are

juxtaposed, neither 'race' can be conceived as pure presence or pure inside.

She reveals that black and white identity only exist in relation to the other and not in terms of eaeh 'race'. The dlfferences between the races becomes merely

an "artificial ornamental surface."33 Henry Louis Gates Jr. argues that races do

not exist as viable marks of differentiation but are created by language. 34 Gates claims that race is an arbitrary signiiier which does not refer to an aetual

signified.35 The idea that b,3ckness refers to an absent signified emerges in

Les Nègres at the end of the play wh en Archibald addresses the court who are now unmasked and discloses that black identity can refer to any quality that is demanded of it.

Le temps n'est pas encore venu de présenter des spectacles sur de nobles données. Mais peut-être

31 Jacques Derrida, "StructUre, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Sciences", Writing and DiffBreOOB, trMS. Alan Bass (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1978) 279. 32 Ibid., 280. 33 Barbara Johnson, "Thresholds of Difference: Structures of Address in Zora Neale Hurslon", "Race, Wnting and Difference, ad. Henry louis Gates Jr. (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1985, 1986) 327. 34 Henry louis Gates, Jr. "Talkin' That Talk." ''Race,'' Writing and Difference, ad. Henry louis ( Gales, Jr. (Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1985, 1986) 402. 35 Henry louis Gales, Jr. 'Writing, 'Race' and the Difference it Makes", 'Rsce' Wriling and Difference, ad. Henry louis Gates, Jr. (Chicago: U of Chicago, 1985,1986) 5.

------______J 52

soupçonne-taon ce que peut dissimuler cette architecture de vide et de mots. Nous sommes ce qu'on veut que nous soyons, nous le serrons donc jusqu'au bout absurdement.38

80th Genet and Gates reveal that racial differences are constructed. In "Writing, 'Race' and the Difference it Makes", Gates cites an example to reveal how language has created natural differences between races, for in 1850, in the United States, the natural differences between blacks and whites were artificially laid OUt.37 Gates argues that it is impossible to base racial differences upon any criteria such as language, biology or a common history. Nevertheless, sanctioned by scientific truth, the concept of race persists as a true mark of differentiation between people. 38 Whites and Blacks are not al ways as distinct trom one another as is the nomenclature used to differentiate these two 'races'. Marilyn Frye argues that there are many people whose skin is white, such as certain Black, Mexican, Puerto Rican or Mohawk individu ais and yet they would not be considered white by the average 'white' North

American. Although an individual can have very pale skin, if slhe has some non-European ancestry, su ch as African or Indian, slhe is not classified as being white. 39 ln Les Nègres Genet reveals how the denotation of white and black does not in fact refer to actual skin colour. After Diouf is killed, while playing a white woman, he reappears in the white world. Wh en Bobo asks Diouf if he is white, Diouf's answer reveals that the term whiteness is not a true signifier of white-skinned people. Diouf replies, gll faut d'abord vous dire qu'ils mentent ou qu'ils se trompent: ils ne sont pas blancs, mais roses, ou jaunâtres ... " 40

38 Genet, Les Nègres, 122. 37 Gates, Jr. 'Writing, 'Race' .,d the Difference it Makes" 3. 38 Ibid. , 2-6. 311"On Seing White: Thinking Toward A Feminist Understanding of Race and Race Supremacy" Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Rea/ity: Essays in Feminist Th90ry (Freedman, Califomia: Crossing Press, 1983) 113-114. 4OGenet, Les Nègres, 91. 53

( Similarly Genet iIIustrates the non-blackness of blacks by having his actors

color their faces with black and coloured shoe polish. 4 ' As Marilyn Frye argues that whiteness does not in tact reter to skin colour. since an individual can have pale skin and not be considered white. she perceives whiteness as a social or political construct. Frye claims that it is whites, and in particular white men who decide who is to belong to the white race. Whiteness is, therefore, not a 'natural

race' but a 'race' as defined by social and political forces. 42 Whereas Gates and Frye question the notion of race in general, Fanon reveals how black identity can not be conceived as unified. He states that although people with 'black' skin are grouped in a given identity as being part of the black race, the black 'race' does not conform to a singular group. As Fanon writes, "The truth is that the Negro race has been scattered, that it can no longer

claim unit y . "43 The lack of homogeneity within black identity emerges in

Genet's play through Félicité's address to the blacks:

Je ne peux vous décrire tous, ni même vous nommer tous ni nommer vos morts, vos armes, vos charrues, mais entrez. Marchez doucement sur vos pieds blancs. Blancs? Non noir. Noir ou blanc? Ou bleus? Rouge, vert, bleu, blanc, rouge, vert, jaune, que sais-je, où suis-je? Les couleurs m'epuisent ......

Sy unveiling the myriad of colours contained within the black race, Genet splinters the unit y of black identity. If Genet's po rt rayai of black identity is addressed from a Derridian perspective, then the inability to isolate black identity as a fixed presence necessarily implies that black identity is not a fixed identity but a locus of

4'lbid.. 9 42 Frye. "On 88ing W1Jite:, 114. ( 43 Frantz Fanon, White Sldn, Black Masks. trans. Charles Lam Markmann (New York: Grave Press. 1967) 173. .... Genet. Les Nègres. 80. -- -~~------

endless substitutions. The possibility of substitutions questions the existence of an original identity, which the substitutions are supposed to be imitating. The lack of an original identity surfaces clearly in the sacrificial murder which appears but does not really imitate an original crime, as this crime can not be located in Les Nègres. Approached trom a Derridian perspective, the enactment of the "original" murder in the ceremony can be said to produce the concept of the original. According to Derrida, what seem to be mimetic repetitions of an original event actually construct the concept of the original.

Imitation constructs its own genesis. 4S The absence of an original can be applied in a wider context in the play to question whether the black identity that the actors are imitating or the white identity that the court is parodying actually refers to original identities. The blacks' failed ceremony brings to light Judith Butler's theory that identity is constructed through performance acts. As does Derrida's theory, Butler's theory displaces the concept of the original by iIIustrating how

performance acts actually construct an original identity rather than imitate il. 48 Even though Judith Butler's work deal with gender, her theory can be applied to the issue of race. As masculinity and femininity are performed according to heterosexual norms. it could be argued that blackness or whiteness is

4S Sy deconstructing Austen's and Searle's claim that performative uHerances are to be understood as p.asitic to non-performative serious uHerances, Derrida displaces the concept of the original. In contrast to Austen, Derrida reveals that serious utterances spoken in 'real' life are in fact a special kind of performance. A sarious speech act, such as a promise, can only be repeated on stage if this utterance can be repeated in 'real' life. The iterability of a speech act whid'l enables an utterance to be performed determines it senous use in everyday communication. The fact that serious utterances are only a special case of performances leads Derrida to question the concept of the original. Any signifying sequence whether it be a gasture or an utterance connotes a particular meaning through its capacity to be repeated in both 'serious' and 'non-serious' contexts. The 'non-ser\ous' or performative repetition does not imitate the original ser!our. .,actment of a ... signifying sequence but rsther both are repetitions which actually construct the concept of an .. original. See Jonathan D. Cu 11er, On D6COnstruction(Cornell: ComeIIUniversity, 1982) 119·120 . 48 Judith Butler, Gender 7i'oubls, 138. 55

performed according to conceptions of what is black or white behaviour.47 The

idea that blackness is performed and performed in accordance to white authority emerges in Les Nègres ln the play, the blacks are gathered to perform their blackness for the white court and consequently the white audience of the play Nevertheless the blackness which the blacks perform conforms to stereotypie conceptions of black identity. When Archibald asks his actors to put

on their black identity by saying. "Que les nègres se nègrent",48 he reveals that the performance of blackness in Les Nègres is contrived and not inherent. Although the blackness that is performed in Les Nègres is E,tereotypic, it is these stereotypes that construct the concept of a transcendent black identity. Even though it is possible for black and white identity to go beyond stereotypie and archetypal performances. Les Nègres reveals that racial identity does not reter to an original and archetypal identity but is constructed through individual

perf~rmance acts. In an analysis of black identity, Gates remarks that. "There can be no transcendent blackness. for it cannot, does not exist beyond manifestations in specifie figures. "48

47 The idea that blackness is performed in accordance ta the white conception of what black identity Is reflected in a m.mber of theoretical writings dealing with black and white relations. Donald A. Petesch comments 00 ftow in the presenoe 0' whites, black individuals will exaggerate their blackness ta conform ta white nonns of what defines a true black expression. As he says, "When this [inter-racial relations between blacks and whites] ocans (in realityand in literature), blacks olten engage in elaborate acts: of being black. As Jean-Paul Sartre's waiter plays at 'being a walter in a cafe", blacks, in the presence of whites, often play at being black in the expressive ways expected of them. Il See. Petesch. A. Donald, MMasking" in Black literature", A Spy in the EIl6ITJY's Country: (Uliversity of Iowa Press, 1989) 70. Furthermore. BeN Hooks observed how white women only percelved black individualt, as truly black if their behaviour reflected stereotypie 'black behaviour'. Hook's conclusion stems from her experience in the feminist movement, in which she daimed that her voice and other black women were ignored because they did not conform ta the stereotypes. Hook states, "Our presence in movemenl activities did not count. as white wornen were convinced Ihat "'eal" blackness meant speaking the patois of poor black people. being uneducated, streetwise. and a variety of other stereotypes... We could be heard only if our slatements echoed the sentiments of the dominant discourse." See Bell Hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (Boston: South End Press, 1984), 11. 48 Genet, Les Négrss, 60. 48 Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique of the Sign and the Signifying Monkey", Fl!Jurss in Blsek: Words, Signs and the "RBciar SsH"(NftN York: Oxford UP, 1987) 275. 56

Although the way in which the blacks perform their skin col our is determined by the asymmetric relations of power, the ceremony by virtue of its deviation from ritualistic patterns reveals that there can exist free play within the constrains of an imposed identity. The actors' alterations of the ceremony's script reveals that the performance of identity is not necessarily fixed but can be changed within the rigid rules of the ritual. As does Genet's portrayal of the identity of Les Nègres, Judith Butler's performance theory iIIustrates how identity, namely gender, is not completely determined. There exists a conformity among women in the way they perform their gender Their gestures must conform to a standard performance of femininity which is dictated by compulsory heterosexuality. Because identity is constructed through the stylized repetition of acts, Butler claims that the performative nature of identity bears the seeds of subversion from heterosexual conformity, for it is possible to do one's identity clifferently within the existing confines. Butler's theory veers away from the limitations of fixed identity by positioning identity within the polarities of determination and free will.5O As Butler states, Paradoxically, the reconceptualization of identity as an effect, that is, as produced or generated, opens up possibilities of lIagency" that are insidiously foreclosed by positions that take identity categories as foundational and fixed. For an identity to b'3 an effect means that it is neither fatally determined nor ful:y artificial and arbitrary.51

While the blacks' ceremony reinforces stereotypes of black identity, there is a simultaneous movement in the play which undermines the stereotypes that it portrays. According to Judith Butler, when stereotyped sexed behaviour is re appropriated by an individual whose genltal-sex does not conform to the sex that slhe is putting-on, the naturalness of sexed behaviour is questioned. Butler

50 Judith Butler, Genet Ident/ty, 142-149. 51 Ibid., 145. 57

( calls acts, such as transvestism or cross-dressing, subversive bodily acts

because they reveal the unnaturalness or constructionist nature of what IS cons.dered natural expression of masculinity and femininity. In such bodily acts an individual is able to consciously put on those gestures and clothes that make

her or him appear to be the opposite sex. 52 Butler's concept of subversive bodily acts and their role in disclosing how identity operates can be applied to Les Nègres. As Genet has his black actors deliberately put on gestures of blackness, he reveals how black identity is a construction. Genet has masked black actors acting as whites and black actors acting as blacks. Even though the blacks in the play perform their blackness according to the dictates of white society, they are nevertheless the ones responsible for producing their blackness. The blacks can, therefore, manipulate their performance. A number of subversive bodily acts occur in the play which question the naturalness of black and white identity. Although the blacks portray their blackness according

to stereotypes, their depiction can at times become 50 exaggerated that it appears completely artificial. Archibald urges the actors to be black to the extreme when he says to them : Je vous ordonne d'être noir jusque dans vos veines et d'y charrier du sang noir.... Qu'ils s'obstinent jusqu'à la folie dans ce qu'on les condamne à être, dans leur ébène, dans leur odeur, dans l'oeil jaune, dans leurs goûts, cannibales. 53

Although the performance of blackness conforms to white conceptions of black identity, through the exaggerated depiction of blackness, the blacks consequently can manipulate and re-appropriate the stereotypes that have been cast upon them. The subversion of stereotypes emerges in the language

of the play in which the binary divisions which separate black and white

( 52 Ibid., 135-141. 53 Genet, Les Négres, 60. 58

"essences" become intertwined. For instance, two black women have names that correspond to whiteness - Neige and Virtu. There emerges a reversai of what is commonly associated with blackness through the vOlce of Félicité, when she says, "Ce qui est doux, bon, aimable et tendre sera nOir Le lait sera noir, le sucre, le nz, le ciel, les colombes, l'espérance, seront noirs .. "54 Whereas Félicité reveals how whiteness will become black, Vertu, through her 'Litanies des Blêmes', discloses the darkness in whiteness. Whiteness is no longer seen as purity and beauty but rather compared to various livid objects or creatures such a t.b. death rattle, the belly of a cobra or a knife in the night. 55 It is during the ceremony, the space where the blacks perform their identity according ta the dictates of an outside authority, that the blacks are simultaneously able to manipulate their identity. Les Nègres clearly negates the idea held by Sartre and his followers that Genet's ceremony is merely a sterile repetition which can not liberate the blacks from their imposed identity. If Genet's concept of identity is understood from the Sartrian perspective, it becomes completely determined by another.56 As mentioned, Sartre claims that the goal of Genet's endeavours is to capture the being that has been imposed upon him. Implicit in Sartre's analysis of Genet is the idea that he is split in two. He lives an identity which has been cast upon him, a false identity, and he can not access his own identity. Genet is forced to live in the world of appearances.

54 Ibid., 105 .. 55lbid.,65. se Ahhough Sartre's theory of gesture which he draws from Genet's writing could bring forth a conception of identity that is not fixed, thls theory is based upon a fatalistic perspective which chains identity to the other and consequently keeps identity determined. AB Sartre saya of Genet: "Ou 'est-ce donc qui l'empêcherait de devenir Stilitano? Puisque nous ne faisons que jouer ce que nous sommes, nous sommes tout ce que nous pouvons jouer, homme, animal, végétal, minéral marne ... Le monde poétique de Genet est un lr...hange indéfini de formes et de gestes, un chassé-croise de transmutations parce que tout a été réduit au geste et que la substance intime du geste c'est le regard des autres." See Sartre. Sain' Gene', 324.

j 59

:( Genet's ceremony, as does Butler's theory, veers away from approaching the issue of identity as either true or false, or real or apparent. Firstly, as an incomplete ritual, the ceremony cannot maintain the distinction between the sacred and the profane, which can be translated respectively into the fake realm of the micro-performance and the real realm outside the performance. Genet further complicates the reallfalse opposition by referring to a 'real' revolution and execution outside the theat: e Archibald speaks of the real black man that is going to be executed .

... il s'agit de juger, problablement, de condamner, et d'exécuter un Nègre. C'est grave. Il ne s'agit plus de jouer. L'homme que nous tenons et dont nous sommes responsables est un homme réel. 57

ln terms of theatre, this execution is unreal. The distinction between real and false breaks down in the play. Nothing can ever become completely false or real in Genet's realm. When the fakeness of an object or action is revealed, the void or inaction is replaced with another 'real' object or event. For instance, wh en the drapery that concealed the non-existence of the catafalque is removed, the reaction to the illusion of presence is that something else is there in its place. The queen cries out, "ri.es chaises!", after the removal of the drapery.58 During the fake murder of Diouf the merging of reality and illusion is presented through Village's and Ville De Saint-Nazaire's description of the murder which occurs offstage.

Rien. Ou si vous voulez, tous s'est passé comme d'habitude... et très proprement. Quand il est entré derrière le paravent, Diouf m'a aimablement aidé a m'asseoir ... Rien d'autre. Ils ont attendu sur un banc 59

57 Genet, Les Négres. 84. ( 58 Chaudhuri, No Man's Stage, 96. 59 Genet, Les Nègres. 86-87. 60

The play of both reality and illusion, which is part of Genet's theatre, extends to the concept of identity performed in the ceremony. Although Genet reveals that black identity is fake in the sense that it do es not refer to an original and true concept of blackness, a black person's identity becomes real through its performance and the repressive effects which essentialist-based concepts of blackness impose on black individu ais. Genet's portrayal of black identity could be approached from a eombined essentialist and constructionist view. Diana Fuss incorporates the arguments of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Joyce A. Joyce, Anthony Appiah and Houston A. Baker, Jr. to arrive at an essentialistlconstructionist approach to race. Fuss reveals

how Joyce IS critical of Gates' claim that race is an arbitrary signifier that refers to an absent signified. Joyce claims that the African-Ameriean critic, such as Gates, who deconstructs race as dominant conceptual category are betraying their African-American culture and attempting to deny their identity as bl~ek. 80 Fuss defends Gates' position by iIIustrating how Gates' approach to race as a sign without any true referential moorings reveals that race is a histoncal construct. Nevertheless, Fuss brings into her discussion of race, Houston A. Baker's claim that the category of race must be maintained as a politieal category to safeguard race from those who wish to silence its political voice. In a theoretical debate between Anthony Appiah and Baker, Appiah argues that race, as a term used in biological discourses, should be eradicated, while Baker seeks to retain the term race, as a political term in literary and critical discourses.81 Fuss reconciles these two stands by proposing that race can be maintained as a political category whlle recognizing that it is a biological fiction. The term raee must be maintained as a politieal category to stake out a position

80 Diana Fuss, ESS8ntially Speaking: Feminism, Nature and DifferellC9(NfNI York: Routledge, 1989) 77. 81 Ibid.. 90-91.

... 61

( trom which to speak of the material effects of racial differentiation. As Fuss says, "... to say that 'race' is a biologieal fiction is not to deny that it has real material effects in the world; nor is to to suggest that 'race' should disappear trom our

eritical vocabularies. "82

It IS possible to speak of the actual effects of racial differentiation while at the same time claiming that races do not exist as biological or cultural givens. Although Gates deconstructs the term race, he claims that there exists a distinct African-American voice in literary texts. Tzvetan Todorov claims that Gates' position is eontradictory. If racial differences do not exist, then how can they

influence literary texts. 63 Gates defends his position by retorting that although

races do not exist, the effects of racism, namely society's attitudes to racial

differentiation, position subjects. As Gates argues, "The term that 1use to quai ify my assertion is attitudes: 'how attitudes toward (pointed or purportedj racial

differences generate and structure texts by us and about us. "64 The effects of racial difference constructs different subject positions. Angela Davis iIIustrates how white women have a built-in privilege of whiteness which black women do

not share and consequently their privlleged position influences their attitudes. ln particular, white women are often unable to see that the black woman 's position is different trom theirs. Davis evinces how the effects of racism in American society places the black individual in a position that is strikingly

different trom a white one. es ln Peau Noire, Masques Blancs, Frantz Fanon depicts how the experience of being either black or white produces differing

eonsciousnesses. He diseloses how Jean-Paul Sartre's philosophieal

discourse which deals with the Other, or the alienated consciousness, can not

82 Fuss, Essentially Speaking, 91. 63 Gales, Jr., "lalkin' That Talk", 404. ( e4 Ibid., 405 65 DaVIS, Women. Raœ and Glass, 119. r 62 1 be applied to black consciousness. In black and white relations, the white man is not only the Other, but also the master whether real or imaginary.66 ln trying to adapt hls philosophy to black consciousness in Orphée Noir, Frantz Fanon claims that, "Jean-Paul Sartre had forgotten that the Negro suffers ln his body

quite differently from the white man. tt67 Attitudes about racial difference have the power to concretely and

materially affect Individuals' lives. Les Nègres Incorporates myths of black identityand reveals both their unreality and their actual concrete power Genet displaces the popular belief that the ability to dance and sing is Innate to the western black as a result of herlhis African roots. Village's speech which reveals his metamorphosis after captivity into slavery reverses this myth.

Je ne chantais pas, je ne dansais pas. Debout, royal, pour tout dire, une main sur la hanche, insolent, je pissais. Alé! Aié! Aiél J'ai rampé dans les cotonniers. Les chiens ont reniflé ma trace. J'ai mordu mes chaînes et mes poignets. L'esclavage m'a enseigné la danse et le chant.e8

The myths of black identity may be imaginary but their effects are real. In the play, the multiple forms of racism surface. ln revealing how Tzvetan Todorov's definitlon of racism is limlted, Gates provides a more comprehensive look at racism. According to Todorov, racism is a behaviour which consists of the deployment of contempt and aggression for a particular group. Gates claims that racism is not merely a behaviour but an attitude or an error of thought. Gates argues that "'racism' exists when one generalizes about the attributes of an individual (and treats him or her accordingly)."69 Furthermore, racist attitudes do not necessarily lead only to

66 Fanon, Black Skms, White Masks, 138. 67 Ibid., 138. 68 Genet, Les Nègres, 54. 89 Henry Louis Gates Jr., '7a1kin' That Talk~ 403. 63

aggression and contempt but may take the form of benevolence, paternalism and sexual attraction. 70 Henry Gates' additions to Todorov's definition of raclsm, which are its most cryptic manifestations, figure most prominently in

Les Nègres The Issue of sexuality and racism is interconnected on a number of levels in Les Nègres. Their correlation emerges in the relationship between Village, Vertu and the White Woman. The white woman, who is an essential part of each ceremony, is not an actual individual but a symbol. She represents the object of desire, that if possessed by the black man, could grant him higher status in the white world. As a result of the degradation that white dominant

society has imposed upon black identity, blacks are inflicted by a sense of inferiority. Frantz Fanon comments on the black individuals internalization of an imposed inferiority complex:

If there is an inferiority complex, it is the outcome of a double process: - primarily economic, - su bsequently, the internalization or, better, the epidermalization of this inferiority.71

Fanon argues that when a black individu al regards his skin colour as a flaw, he or she seeks sexual contact with whites in order to elevate himself to the same status as the white individual. 72 The desire of the black man for the white

wor"an emerges through the fears of both Neige and Vertu, that in Village's hate for the white woman, whom he 'rapes' and 'murders', there lurks a hidden desire for her. Although Village's criminal acts, which he enacts in the ceremony, are intended to iIIustrate his b!ackness and hate for whites, Village is

70 Ibid., 30. 71 Frantz Fanon, Black S#cin, ~lte Masks, 13. 72 Ibid., 81. For a similar adaplion of Fanon's lheory 10 Les Nègres, S88 Keith a. Wamer, "Les Nègres' A Look al Gene!'s Excursion Inlo Black Consciousn8SS, n CoI/fige Language Association Joumal 26.4 (1983): 409. 64 l suspected of actually loving his white victims. As Neige says. Si j'étais sûre que Village eût descendu cette femme afin de devenir avec plus d'éclat un Nègre balafré, puant, lippu, camus mangeur, bouffeur, bâfreur de Blancs et de toutes les couleurs, ... si j'étais sûre qu'il l'ait tuée pour se confondre avec la nUit ... Mais Je sais qu'ill'aimait.73

Furthermore, Neige accuses Village of wishing to change the colour of his skin

in order to possess a white woman. Village's hatred of his black identity

renders him incapable of truly loving a black woman. Village IS incapable of

loving Vertu because she is a prostitute, who is dependent upon white men for her livelihood. The impossibility of Village and' Vertu's relationshlp is disclosed wh en Village says, "Vertu marche sous la pluie à la recherche des Blancs, vous le savez. Non, non, il n'y aura pas d'amour pour nous, .. ,"74

By virtue of her work and her skin colour, Vertu can never be a real love

object for a man. The devaluation of Vertu is brought forth in the play wh en

Neige says to Vertu, "\bus pensez donc être aimée de lui, vou~, la négresse soumise?"75 Village's desire for a white woman is an appropnation of white consciousness. In white-dominant society the status of the white woman is

elevated above the black woman. Marilyn Frye reveals that the term 'woman'

al ways designates a white woman. "It was breathtaking to discover that in the

culture 1 was born and reared in, the word 'woman' means white woman, ... "78

The white woman, as an archetypal image of the positive connotations of "Woman", such as purity and beauty emerges, though at tlmes ln a satlrie IIght, in the figure of the Queen. The privileged status of the white woman is reflected

in the Oueen's response to the blacks' decision to avenge the court. The

Queen reveals her surprise at their anger towards her by saying, "Mais qu'est-

73 Genet, Les Nègres, 39. 74 Ibid., 47. 75 Ibid., 30. 78 Frye, On Seing White, 117.

- 65

ce que je leur ai fait." Je suis bonne, douce, et belle!"n Genet demonstrates

how the beautiful woman becomes synonymous with the white woman.

Consequently, Vertu must steal the Queen's vOlce to be beautiful. 78 ln a verbal showdown between the Queen of the court and Fehcité, in which the Queen boasts of her superiority, Genet reveals how the elevated status of the white woman has deep historical roots.

Vous n'empêcherez, ma belle, que je n'ai été plus belle que vous. Tous ceux qui me connaissent pourront vous le dire. Personne n'a été chantée plus que moi. Ni plus courtisée ni fêtée. Ni parée. Des nuées de heros, jeunes et vieux, sont morts pour moi. Mes équipages étaient célébres. Au bal, chez l'Empereur, un esclave africain soutenaIt ma traîne. Et c'est pour moi qu'on a décroché la Croix du Sud. Vous étiez encore dans la nuit ... 7i

Whereas the white woman has been cast into a mythical figure of

perfection and beauty, the black woman has been devalued. As the white woman has become associated with certain attributes, the black woman has become synonymous with a few pejorative stereotypes. The black woman has

been limited by such stereotypes as mammy, matriarch and whore.llo These stereotypie images emerge in Les Nègres through the figures of Neige, Felicité and Vertu. Neige and Felicité can be viewed as the powerlul black woman, or

matriarch, who has been accused of dominating and emasculating menaI and Vertu assumes the role of the prostitute. The white woman is de-sexualized and

nGenet. Les Nègres. 108. 711 Ibid., 54·55. Ses W.F. Sohlich, "Genet's The Blacks and The Screens : Dialectic of Refusai and Revolutionary Consaousness." Comparative Drama 10.3 (1976): 223. 78 Genet, Les Négre5, 104. ao Combahee River Collective. liA Black Feminist Statement," This Bridge Called My Back: Wnti'lgs by Radic8J Womsn of CoIor, Id. Charrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua (New York: Kitchen Table: Women of CoIor Press. 1981) 212. lit Cora Kaplan. "Keeping the coIor in ThIl CoIor PUrplfJ' Ssa Chang8S: Essays on Culture and Fem'nlsm(London Verso. 1986) 186~187. 66

the black woman is marked with a sexual image. 80th black men and women are oppressed by a sexual image that has been cast upon them. Frantz Fanon argues that the sexual image that has been imposed upon black people

de bases them. He reveals that the equation of black Identity wlth sexuality IS an attitude that is deeply rooted in Western consciousness, when he states that. "It is just that over a series of long days and long nights the image of the biological-sexual-genital-nigger has imposed itself on vou and vou do not know

how to get free of it. 82 Through the Valet's continuo us commentaries on the sexual prowess and physical beauty of black men, the idea of the sexual Image

that is linlo:ed with blackness emerges in Les Nègres. 83 Moreover, bath in the

ceremony of rape/murder, in which the black actors perform their blackness and demonstrate their separateness from whites, and outside the ceremony, the

blacks emphasize their physicality. In an address to the court, Bobo reveals how only the black individual is associated with the body. Bobo says to Archibald:

La puanteur vous effraie, maintenant? C'est elle qui monte de ma terre africaine. Moi, Bobo, sur ses vagues épaisses, je veux promener ma trainel Qu'une odeur de charogne me porte! Et m'enlève! (A La Cour:) Et toi, race blafarde et inodore, toi, privée d'odeurs animales, privée des pestilences de nos marécages .. 84

Through the equation of blacks with corporeality, Genet alludes to the sexual image that is used to homogenize and limit black identity. ln white-dominated society, both the black man and black woman are

82 Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks. 202 83 The idea !hat blackness is associated with an op~essiV8 image of sexualHy appears in a great deaI of the literature of blacklwhite relations See Timothy Maliqualim Simone, About Face: Race in Postmodflm America (New York: Autonomedia, 1989) 45-41 and Barbara Smith and Beverly Smith, Across the Kitchen TabIB: A sist. to sist. dialogue, 124. 84 Genet, Les Nègres, 33.

~------67 . t degraded by stereotypic and oppressive images. Consequently, Village's Inabihty to love Vertu is not only a response to his internalized hatred of his black identity but is alsa a result of a generalized devaluing of black women. The idea that Village's inabllity to love Vertu is symptomatic of a larger problem, namely the way in whlch black identity is constructed in society, emerges in Village's statement to Vertu: ... Quand je vous vis, sur de hauts talons vous marchiez dans la pluie ... Quand je vous VIS, j'eus tout à coup, je crois, durant une seconde, la force de nier tout ce qui n'était pas vous, et de rire devant l'illusion, hélas mes épaules sont bien fragiles. Je ne pus supporter la condamnation du monde. Et je me suis mis à vous haïr quand tout en vous m'eüt fait entrevoir l'amour, et que l'amour m'eOt rendu insupportable le mépris des hommes, et ce mépris insupportable mon amour pour vous. Exactement, je vous hais.8s

When addressing the issue of black and white relations, Genet reveals how racism is not separate from sexuality. Furtherrnore, he iIIustrates how sexism or male dominance al50 Influences racial dynamics. The interplay of racism and sexism in Les Nègres bears similarity to Bell Hook's discussion of their Interconnection. Hooks argues that although white women are oppressed by sexism and black men by racism, both these groups have the opportunity to

be oppressors in society. Racism gives white women the power to oppress

blacks and sexism allows black men to become oppressors of women. 86 Genet iIIustrates how male dominance enables the black man to attain a level of power to which black women do not have access. Through his acts of rape and murder, Village dominates and oppresses white women. Although Village's desire to dominate women stems in part from the oppression that he expenences being a black man in a white-dominated society, he becomes an

85 Genet, Les Nègres, 45· 46. te BeN Hooks, FefTJInist Theory: From Margin to Center, 15. 68

oppressor nonetheless. Without excusing men or alleviatlng them of the

responsibility for thelr actions, Bell Hooks reveals how myths of masculine

superiority lead men to oppress women to compensate for thelr lack of power 87 Genet demonstrates how the white woman finds herself in the position of both a victim of oppression and one of its perpetrators. Genet presents the double positioning of the white woman in society through the vlctimizatlon of the white woman in the ceremony and the figure of the Queen, a representatlon of the privileged white woman who has been able to domlnate and oppress both black women and black men. Black women are oppressed by both sexism and racism. Although through Vertu's role as a prostltute, she dominates the whltes, her domination is not as efficacious as the potentlal domination that oppressive systems in society grant black men, white women and white men.

Nevertheless, Archibald says to Village that through Vertu's profession, she IS more powerful than Village. "Elle a plus de pouvoirs que toi. Il lui arrive de dominer les Blancs - oh, je sais, par son coup de rein magique! Mais c'est encore les dominer."ea Verti.,; manages to dominate her white male customers, because they are dependent upon her for their sexual pleasure. Vertu's dominant status can be viewed in light of the Sartrian account of the dominant status which the passive homosexual attains through his submissiveness to the dominant male. Although Vertu's acts are not intrinsically degrading, in society she is regarded as being in a position of subordination. Vertu reveals that her profession is more debasing than the staged performance of degradation that the blacks perform for the white court. She says, "Ou'on sache donc que la cérémonie de ce soir aura sur moi moins d'efficacité que celle que j'accomplis

87 Ibid., 73. -Genet, Les Né9r9s, 48. 69

( dix fois par jour. Je suis la seule a aller jusqu'au bout de la honte.. "89 Genet

iIIustrates how racism and sexism have placed the black woman in a position that separates her trom black men. When Neige accuses the black men of desiring the murdered white wornen, she reveals that black women, unlike black men, can not gain any power through systems of oppression.

Pas pareil, messieurs. Dans votre haine pour elle il entrait un peu de désir, donc d'amour. Mais moi, mais elles (Elle montre les autres femmes), mais nous. les Négresses, nous n'avions que nos colères et nos rages. 90

Through the character of Diouf, who later plays the role of the white woman, Genet iIIustrates how benevolence is one of the forms which racism takes. Diouf, who is the most resigned of the blacks to his condition, urges the others to adopt a more moderate and less revorutionary approach to dear with

black oppression. Diouf's hostility towards the whites is lessened by his sense of Indebtedness to the whites for ail they have given him. Diouf says to Archibald: Monsieur, je m'excuse. Comme vous, je voudrais exalter ma couleur. Sur ma tête comme sur la vOtre. légère et insupportable, est descendue se poser la bonté des Blancs. Sur mon épaule droite leur intelligence. sur la gauche tout un vor de vertus, et quelquefois, dans ma main, en l'ouvrant, je decouvrais blottie leur chanté. Dans ma solitude nègre, comme vous, j'ai besoin d'exalter mon exquise sauvagerie, mais je suis vieux et je pense ... 91

The goodness of the whites towards the blacks is part of a general paternalistic attitude, which disguised as a positive enterprise, is in reality of form of

domination. When the blacks revoIt against the whites at the end of the play, the

89 Ibid .• 47·48. ( 9OIb.d., 30. 91 Ibid., 44. 70

Missionary discloses white paternalism and benevolence. The Missionary says to the blacks: ... Montrez un peu de bonne volonté. Regardez comme elle [la reine] s'est habillée pour vous rendre visite et songez à tout ce que nous avons fait pour vous. Nous vous avons baptisés! Tous! l'eau qu'il a fallu pour vous ondoyer? Et le sel? le sel sur vos langues'?92

Through the Missionary's insistence that the blacks should be grateful to the whites for providing salt and water to baptize them, white paternalism is ridiculed. Genet's mockery of the court, a representation of white authority, unveils his criticism of white benevolence and paternalism which were and are still used as a means to subjugate. Genet's Les Nègres is an enactment of the real effects of racism. His demonstration of the material effects of racism powerfully unfolds at the close of the play. At the end of Les Nègres, the entire play is transformed into a ritual which produces the real power of white domination upon black identity. Genet

ritualizes his play by producing an asymmetric relation of power between the audience and the performers. According to Richard SChechner, ritual and theatre are not completely isolated from one another. Any given performance can oscillate between becoming a ritual or a theatrical performance depending upon the attitude that both the performers and the spectators have toward the performance. When theatre is ritualized it yields efficacious acts. In a ritual, the performers are not merely performing a role but become possessed by the drama. The audience is transformed from a collection of separate indlviduals into a group or congregation of participants. The performance produces a real effect upon the performers and audience that extends beyond entertainment and brings the two

12 Ibid., 108.

, 71

{ groups together to dissolve boundaries. 93 ln hght of Schechner's theory, it can be shown how the play as a whole becomes a ritua!. By stating in the opening pages of Les Nègres that the play is intended for a white audience. Genet transforms his audience into a collective unlfled by their shared "racial" origin. He aise insists that his play be only performed by black actors

Any black performer can act in my play, anywhere, without permission ta that extent, it no longer belongs to me. But vou must certainly realize that the drama would cease to exist in the hall if white actors, made up as blacks, appeared on stage instead of real blacks speaking out their real miseries. 9"

Genet reveals how the actors must be able to enact their own suffering through the language of the play. Taking part in performing Les Nègres becomes more than just playing a role but enables the actors to actually experience the pains of black identity. Richard C. Webb in his article titled, "Ritual, Theatre and The Blacks:, reveals how the first production of Les Nègres incurred problems for the actors because they had difficulty coming to terms with the reality of their condition illuminated so powerfully by Genet's play.95 For the black actors, the performance of Les Négres has a ritualistic quality by being partially a performance of poiesis rather than merely mimesis.98

Although the aim of ritual is to bring the performers and audience

83 Richard Schechner, "From Ritual to Thealer and Back: the Efficacy-Entertainment Braid", Essays on Perlormance(London: Routledge, 1988) 124, 141, 142. !MJean Genet, "To a Would-be Producer", TOR 7, nO.3 (1963): 80. 85 Richard C. Webb. "Ritual, Theatre and Jean Genet's The Blacks~ Theatre Joum. 31.4 (1979): 455. 98 According to Victor Turner, Schechner's theatre workshops aim at "making not faking." The { theatrical role grows along with the actor. Theatrical drama becomes ritualized. See Victor Turner, "Dramatic RituaJ/Aitual Drama: Performative and Reflexive Anthropology", From Ritual to Theatre: Human Seriousness of Play (New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications. 1982) 93. , " 72

: together, Genet's ritual does the opposite. This ritualized play enacts the racial

separation between blacks and whltes and the corresponding white oppression whlch the blacks must endure. For Genet, the separation of racial groups comprises a restoration of the social order even If the real racial separation, as revealed by the failed ritual of the ceremony, is Impossible. The ritual quality of the play does not become blatant until the focus of the drama is taken off the

micro-play of the ceremony and on to the play as a whole When the five

masked members of the court take off their masks, the division between the performers who are really blacks and the white audience is emphaslzed The function of the micro-play, which was to act out the black identlty of infenority and degradation that has been imposed upon blacks by white domination, becomes the goal of the play as a whole. The white audience is 1herefore thrust

into the position of the white court who have gathered together to watch blacks

performing their blackness according to the white world's conception of what it means to be black. Although Sartre's analysis of Genet provldes the groundwork for understanding Genet's concept of identity as portrayed through the ceremOnies, Sartre's analysis is anchored to a deterministic view of identity. It seems that

identity for Genet is neither completely determined nor arbitrary. In parallel to

Sartre, Genet does disclose in Les Nègres that black identity is determined. Nevertheless, as he iIIustrates that the way one performs one's race does not mimic an original, true or fixed identity, he intimates that the 'truth' of identity lies in its performance. Through the deviations of the ceremony from its rigid and

ritualized form, which is intended to depict how black identity has been cast

upon blacks, Genet's writing reveals that there does exist the possibllity to

perform one's identity differently. Although Genet demonstrates that blacks • 73

( cou Id perform blackness through gestures that steer away from those sanctioned by the dominant white ideology, he conveys simultaneously the

rp~lity of white oppression and the effects of racism.

( .. Conclusion

Since Sartre's analysis of the ceremony in Les Bonnes. the ceremony in Genet's plays has been viewed as a repetltive and futile act that only reveals

the impossibility of being Nevertheless, the ceremony in Les Nègres and its relation to the rest of the play reveals how identity operates. Through the interplay of reality and illusion ln the play's portrayal of identlty, Genet demonstrates that although racial identities are contrived, their effects are real. This conclusion unfolds through an analysis of how the ceremony is a failed ritual in the sense that it is unable to establish its goal, which is the

differentiation between blacks and whites. Seing black or white does not refer

to a true, immutable essence that IS based upon biological and/or natural givens. The category of race, as a mark of dlfferentlation, is deconstructed As the blacks' ceremony constitutes the performance of an identity that has been cast upon black individuals. racial difference emerges as a corporeal

expression or body performance. Given that an indivldual performs hlslher own

race, it is possible for each individual to perform hislher race differently. Even though Genet allows for subversion of imposed identities, he simultaneously reveals how the dominant discourse imposes constraints upon the way an individual can perform hislher identity. In Les Nègres racism is real even ~ 1 though Genet depicts how actual difference between races are constructed. Racism assumes the multiple forms of contempt, aggresslon, sexual attraction,

benevolence and paternalism. Furthermore, the Interconnection of racism with issues of sexuality and male dominance also surfaces in Les Nègres. Genet's paradoxical depiction of race, in whlch he both eradicates dlfferences between l ) blacks and whltes and emphasizes their separateness, can be read as a .1. 75

simultaneous rejection of racial differences, as fixed, immutable terms, and a maintenance of differences in order to address the issue of racism. At the close of the play, Genet's Les Nègres is partlally transformed into ritual 1hrough its power to make both the audience and the actors actually experience the oppressive reality of racial separation.

The analysis of race in Les Nègres is similt\r to the portrayal of sexual

Identities ln three of Jean Genet's works, Querelle de Brest, Notre-Dame-Des Fleurs and Les Bonnes. In Genet's world masculinity and femininity are expressed almost solely by genital-sexed men, with the exception of the female characters in Les Bonnes unless Sartre's claim, that the women's roles in the play should be performed by men, is taken into account. Sexual identities function as corporeal sets of gestures, expressions and displays that can be appropriated and manipulated by both male and female genital-sexed individuals. Masculinity is neither the exclusive domain of men nor is femininity the pro pert y of women Through the performance of binary sexual identities asymetrical relations of power, which privilege the male, are produced. The enactment of masculinity comprises an expression of empowerment that femininity is denied. Fel1'1ininity, whether it is performed by actual men or women, is always subordinate to the masculine. Genet iIIustrates how the asymetrical relation of binary sexual identities and their performance is similar in both the homosexual and heterosexual realms. in his works, only those homosexual men whose body expresses the feminine are considered to be hc;mosexual. An equation is made between the impoverished status of the female and the feminine man. Masculinity, as it is performed by heterosexual men, homosexual men or genital-sexed women, as Îll the case of Lysianne in Querelle de Brest, is always privileged. 76

Femininity and masculinity are perceived through heterosexual fllters even in a homosexual domain. Given that sexual identitles are corporeal expressions that can be manlpulated, it IS possible for an Indivldual to perform hislher body in a manner that deviates from the normative expression of masculinity and femininity. Nevertheless, the dictate of heterosexuality, whlch claims that it is natural for men to appear male and women feminlne, prevails. Deviations from heterosexual behaviour bears punitive consequences. Genet reveals how 'feminine' men are punished, not only by heterosexuals but al50 by homosexuals. The idea that men must appear masculine is as much under the jurisdiction of homosexuality as heterosexuahty. Genet's characters are obsessed by the desire to either become or

possess ideal expressions of masculinity and femininity which are archetypal

constructs based upon the heterosexual discourse of what constitutes the natural. As archetypal sexual identities can never be fully embodied, the goal of his characters emerges as an impossible and impnsoning quest. Although individuals appear to be imitating ideal constructs, it is individuals' expression of maseulinity and femininity that actually constructs original and ideal sexual

expression. White stripping sexual identities of any claim to an originary,

natural, ideal and fixed essence, Genet emphaslzes archetypal masculine and female expression in order to diselose to what extent myths of sexual Identity continue to exert an oppressive influence on the lives of individual men and women. A number of theoretical precepts surface in the analysis of identity:

namely the deconstruction of a fixed sUbject, the subversion of mimetic identity, the impossibility of a completely determined subject and the interplay of binary ,. oppositions. Genet dissolves the fixed identitles of man and woman, black and

'Jo 77

( white, homosexual and heterosexual and their reference to an essential nature.

The concept of the original is displaced in a Derridian sense. A given identity does not mlmlc an original source but rather the original is constructed through the repeated performance of an Identity construct. The existence of a true and onginalldentlty which can be co pied is subverted. The performative nature of identlty resolves the dilemma of whether identity is derived or arbitrary. Identity is posltioned between the two polanties. Through the assertion that identity can

1 be both arbitrary and determined, the rigidity of binary logic is broken down,

although not compieteJy dismantled. The body is not a passive reciplent of an imposed Identlty, as Sartre's analysls of Genet's identity assumes, but instead actively partlclpates ln its enactment. It is the performative aspect 01 identity that grants the subject a certain degree 01 agency Given the theatrical depiction of sexuality in Genet's fiction

and his exploration of the issue of race in the physical medium of theatre, his

works emphasize identity as a body performance. Sexual and racial identities

constitute corporeal expressions of movement, gesture, language and display deprived 01 a space of intenority or depth. Theories which assume that sexual or racial identities are based upon differences which are inherent, such as psychoanalytic or biologically determined approaches, have been excluded from the analysis of identity in Genet.

If identities are produced by corporeal expression, th en it is possible that binary identlties could be splintered to produce a multiplicity of sexes and races. The idea that identity categories are merely sets of mutable bodily expressions does not allow for subject specificity. As the dictates of heterosexuality and white dominance, which divide identity categories into asymetrical dualisms of black and white, female and male, and homosexual and heterosexual, continue 78

to operate, an unwillingness to address the specificity would entail a denlal of

the oppression caused by sexual and racial differentiation. Although identlty

categories in Genet's realm do not correspond to an interior, fixed essence that unites individuals of a certain sex, race or sexual orientation, exterior social and

political forces produce different groups under the pretense of inhe~ent shared commonalities. Genet reveals how politlcal forces create diviSions between

blacks and whites. In his address to American college students ln the May Day

Speech, Genet sa ys , "We whites are living perhaps in a liberal democracy, but the black man lives, like it or not, under a paternahst, authoritanan, imperiahstlc

regime."' The injustices which have created invisible boundaries between

different groups have al50 lad to individual forms expression that differentiate one group from another. For instance, although Gates deconstfucts the notion of race as a mark of differentiation, he recognizes that there exists a tradition of

African-American writing. The recognition of a certain degree of specificity

among individuals that share a particular sex, race and/or sexual orientation

does not imply that these differences are biologically determined, transhistorical

or transcultural but are rather dependent on, and change according to, a particular historical time and place. Consequently, there are aspects of Les

Nègres which celebrate the uniqueness of black identlty and elements of his novels which are glorifications of male homosexuality. In the following speech,

Felicité glorifies blackness, even if it has been constructed as a flaw or a crime:

Eh bien, Dahomey! Dahomey! Nègres, venez m'épauler Et qu'on ne laisse pas escamoter le Crime. (A la Reine:) Personne n'aurait la force de le nier. Il pousse, il pousse, ma belle, il grandit, verdit, il éclate en corolles, en parfums, et c'est toute l'Afrique ce bel arbre, mon crimel Les oiseaux sont venus s'y nicher et dans ses branches la nuit s'y repose. 2

t Jean Genet, May Day Speech description by Allen Ginsberg (San Francisco: City Light Books, 1970) 19. 2 Jean Genet, Les Nègres. 102 79

Through Genet's simultaneous exaltation of marginal identities and illustration of how feminlnlty, homosexuality and blackness is degraded, the reality of oppression arislng from difference can not be negated. The specificity of Identlty constructs are to be maintalned as political categories in order to address the oppression resulting from racial and sexual differentiation. r 80

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